Gilmore Larson

Gilmore Larson of Montevideo died on Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at CCM Health in Montevideo at the age of 95.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00AM on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at Bergen Lutheran Church, rural Granite Falls.  Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Visitation with the family will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on Friday, July 26, 2024 at Anderson-TeBeest Funeral Home in Montevideo with a prayer service to begin at 6:30PM. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the services at the church on Saturday.

Gilmore-Servant of God.

Gilmore Cushman Larson was born on November 21, 1928, to Peder and Mable (Grinager) Larson at the family farm in Lisbon Township near Clarkfield, MN. He was baptized and confirmed at Bergen Lutheran Church.  Gilmore attended Happy Days Country School through the eighth grade. He then went on to Clarkfield High School and graduated in 1946.

He met Marilyn, the love of his life and what he referred to as his greatest accomplishment, and they were married on December 27, 1953.  Gilmore was very proud to say he had 70 years and 70 days with his bride.   In 1957 Gilmore and Marilyn became foster parents to 3 siblings: Rosie, Albert and Jane Kruckman; whom they loved dearly and were hopeful they could adopt them, however that did not happen.  In 1959 they lovingly adopted Tim, followed by Tammy in 1961.  Judy was born to them in 1962 followed by Kathy in 1963. Their prayers had been answered and they now had a full house with 4 children under the age of 5.

Gilmore was inducted into the army on March 23, 1951, and was in Fort Bliss, Texas when he received the call 8 months later on November 10th that his father-who was only 53 years old- had passed away suddenly from a heart attack.  He was able to get home for the funeral and he spoke about how difficult it was for him to see his dad in a casket and he knew life would change for him.  He was discharged from the Army in January of 1952. He stayed at the farm and began his career as a farmer, the only job he ever wanted.

Even though Gilmore wasn’t a big athlete in high school; he sure took up a lot of sports and physical activities as an adult. He and Marilyn both enjoyed bowling and loved being involved with their neighbors

After bowling became horseshoe.  He was in a horseshoe league for many years and in 1968 he built an indoor horseshoe court in his shed.  He always said then they could have spring training at his farm.  Gilmore devoted a lot of time to pitching horseshoes and practiced a lot. He wanted to achieve a goal of 50% of the shoes thrown would be ringers, which he was able to do.  He was thrilled that his niece Susan recently took up this sport and he was able to recall many techniques to coach her in how to be successful. Amazingly this conversation took place two days before he fell.

Then came golfing and we all know how important that was for Gilmore – he built his house on the golf course as evidence.  Golf was the number one sport in his life, and he was able to do that until he was 90 years old. There were some golfing days that he and his buddies would golf 27 holes. When he wasn’t swinging the club, he was picking up all the golf balls on the course and at one time he had over 1000 golf balls in his garage. He was the place to go when you needed to buy some golf balls.  He enjoyed the group of men he golfed with daily, as well as the Clarkfield golf league and golfing with Marilyn.

There was one person that was with Gilmore while he participated in bowling, horseshoe and golf and that was his very close friend and cousin Al Cornelius. “Corn” was as passionate as Gilmore in playing these activities, and he enjoyed all of them as much as Gilmore.

Gilmore served on various boards over the years; Tri-Line Elevator, Corn Growers, numerous committees and positions at Bergen – including Treasurer for many years.  He loved to participate in whatever was going on at Bergen and lovingly referred to Bergen members as his  family. He was also the Assessor for Lisbon and Friendship townships for over 20 years.  Because he loved numbers and was sharp at keeping precise records, even at 95, he really enjoyed the jobs that he had where he was able to work with numbers.  His checkbook was always balanced to the penny and he could rattle off information that involved numbers from years ago.  He recalled loaning an army buddy of his; Joe Pascopio from Brooklyn New York, $40 that he never got back. We talked about adding interest to that loan and laughed with him in the hospital about how we could try and get that loan back. We were amazed he could recall this name that was not a common Norwegian-sounding name and the amount he loaned him 70 plus years ago.

Gilmore and Marilyn built their house on the golf course in 1992 and you would think that meant time for retirement. However, I don’t think we can say that either one of them officially retired; because they both still worked and volunteered so much that they were still as busy as they were on the farm.   Gilmore was fond of saying that he had 3 jobs after he moved to Montevideo (in addition to golfing that is).   He chased turkeys at the barns by Clarkfield; he pushed the residents to breakfast at Luther Haven in Montevideo; and he was a driver of the NAPA truck delivering parts in Montevideo.  So, he liked to say he was a Chaser, a Pusher and a Driver and these jobs were all going on at the same time in his life and he loved them all of them.  He always wanted all of us to enjoy our jobs; he was so fortunate to have done that.

Gilmore demonstrated so many admirable qualities that seemed to come so naturally to him. He was very kind, patient, non-judgmental and content-he never complained no matter the circumstances.  The word humble is the quality that stands out when describing Gilmore. An example of this is with his wife and golfing. Marilyn received her hole in one at age 75 and Gilmore would tell everyone about this with such pride in his voice.  However, if you asked him if he had also been able to accomplish this, he would be hesitant to say that he had done this as well; 3 times in fact.

By far the most important part of his life was his relationship to God and his faith.  He may not always have expressed this in words, but his actions and the way he faced each day showed us all how to live. He demonstrated daily how to live, and most recently how to die.  On Tuesday, the day before he passed away, he had some minutes of clarity, and we believe it was God speaking through him. He said very strongly that “I want to see my God”! He followed up that statement with “There is only one God and He created everything”.  It was a very powerful speech, and it was said in front of many family members. He looked at each person in the eyes as he was speaking very clearly and we believe he wanted all of us to know how important it is to  put aside differences, be unified and to believe and worship the one true God.

Gilmore fell on Friday, July 12 in his home and fractured his shoulder and his hip. He knew that he would not be returning to his home, and he was very content to leave this earth and move on to heaven to join his wife, daughter, granddaughter, brother, parents and many other family members.  On Sunday, July 14th he made the decision to stop all life saving measures and we as a family decided to honor those wishes.  He said many times that he had lived such a satisfying life, and he was very peaceful and content.

Gilmore is survived by son, Tim (Jody) Larson; daughters Judy (Karl) Bergeland and Kathy (Steve) Koetter; foster daughter Jane Flinn; grandchildren: Jesse Larson, Justin Larson, Jared Larson, Michael Winters, Corey Winters, Matthew Winters, Gretchen Bergeland, Rachel Bergeland, Maggie Bergeland, Ingrid Bergeland, Lexi DuFrane, Zack DuFrane; step-grandchildren: Jeremy Olson, Joey Olson, Zachary Olson; 18 great-grandchildren; 2 great-great grandchildren; brother in law Jim Boraas; sisters in law, Bonnie (Jerry) Anderson, Maisy Thompson, Linda Boraas and 16 nieces and nephews.

Gilmore was preceded in death by his wife Marilyn, daughter Tammy, granddaughter Elizabeth, parents Peder and Mable Larson, brother Percy Larson, sisters in law: Floraine Larson, Lois Brown, Donna Boraas; brothers-in-law: Leslie Boraas, Bob Thompson, Chuck Brown;  foster daughter, Rosie Haase and foster son, Albert Kruckman.

Blessed be his memory.