by Paul Gibb
Which of our members had French-Canadian ancestors, grew up Catholic, had polio as a child, was a member of SDS during the Vietnam War, and has been singing in church choirs since they were a child?
Had you guessed, Larry LaVerdure, you’d have been correct. Larry was born in the small town of Berlin just northeast of Worcester, Massachusetts. His parents were “second-generation imports from Canada,” as he puts it, “but they had pretty much lost their native tongue. They knew some swear words, and simple orders from their parents in French, but that was the extent of it.”
Larry came from a family of 12. He was the second son and the third sibling. The family’s house was built in 1812 by a farmer who owned quite a bit of land. When Larry’s father bought it after WWII, he bought the whole house and land for $5,000. They raised primarily goats and chickens. Larry himself raised 124 chickens when “I was a wee lad.” When he was in eighth grade his father taught him how to shoot a .22 rifle and he was assigned the job of making sure the rabbits didn’t eat all the plants in their 2-acre garden.
When he was five, he came down with a near fatal case of bulbar-polio and spent half a year in three different hospitals recovering.
From kindergarten to fourth grade, he was taught by nuns. At that time Catholics celebrated their liturgy in Latin. He didn’t understand very much of it, but it was the music he heard that really interested him.
As one of the oldest siblings, he was often called upon to help care for the younger ones. “I could diaper with one hand. I had to be careful with the pins. Otherwise, they’d scream like crazy.” Home was not conducive to quiet study, so he tried to do most of his studying at school.” During his junior and senior years, Larry attended Assumption Preparatory, a boarding school in Worcester on a religious scholarship (pre-seminary) where all the priests, brothers and nuns spoke French. He has since forgotten, through lack of use, most of the French he had learned.
After that, he attended Boston College, a Jesuit school on a scholarship majoring in psychology. The Vietnam Police Action was ragging during that time. He joined Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and applied for Conscientious Objector status. His draft number was 76…a guaranteed ticket to Nam. He was prepared to take a long vacation in Canada with relatives should his student deferment cease.
Boston College was also where he met Ellen on a blind date set up by mutual friends. He was smitten by Ellen’s rendition of “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen at Boston College student’s basement coffee house appropriately titled “Middle Earth”. In 1971 they both headed to Washington DC for a major protest of the continuing war in Viet Nam with 3 Vans full of other members of SDS. While there they were arrested and confined in the Washington Redskins practice football field and released that night. The field was surrounded by National Guardsmen with drawn bayonets. Larry has written a poem about the experience. It’s one of his favorites.
Larry left Boston College because he ran out of money and because he needed to work to raise his family. It would be another six or seven years before he was able to complete a degree at Worcester State. Not satisfied with his psychology major and wanting to get a better-paying job, he minored in computer technology. He first landed at Honeywell and then at Digital Equipment Corporation, followed by Lotus Development, IBM, Clark University, and then a community service group which was mostly targeted at helping people of color. “I learned a lot about myself then,” he says, “you know, the biases I had and didn’t realize.”
What brought Larry to Colorado? His daughter Rebecca moved to Colorado and gave birth to Larry’s granddaughter Zoe. Ellen then moved to Rebecca’s to help raise their grandchild. A year later Larry moved out too, and he and Ellen have been in Louisville/Lafayette ever since.
As for Larry’s religion? While still in Massachusetts he left the Catholic Church (when priests’ pedophilia cover-up became known). “It wasn’t a major thing for me because when I had gone to college, I had become an atheist. I only went to the local Catholic Church because my family was going there. When Ellen and I left the Catholic Church, we started going to the Northborough UU Church, not far from Worcester. But to our great dismay, the minister was arrested for molesting two Nepalese girls he was hosting in the United States for their education. We hung in there for a while and then we turned to the UU Church of Worcester. I was pleased because there was a very progressive female minister, which was new to me, and when I met the minister emeritus who shared my interested in canoeing and outdoor recreation, I was elated to discover that he was also an atheist. I began to awaken to a spirituality without dogma or deity.”
When he moved to Colorado, he started doing computer maintenance for the Boulder County Housing and Human Services Group, from 2008 to 2018, when he retired.
How did he come to BVUUF? When he moved out to Louisville, he decided to start attending BVUUF. Ellen had already been going there. It was when BVUUF was in the new building in Lafayette and was changing ministers from Rev. Catherine to an interim, just prior to Rev. Lydia taking over. “First of all,” he says, “what I liked was that it was UU, there were people there who were Humanists, and it was a progressive atmosphere. Ellen and Jon Blanco and several other musicians had gotten together and started Saturday night get-togethers at the Fellowship. It was called the Sweet Noise Coffee House. I was the emcee.”
And what about his love of music? “My mother was a concert pianist when I was little and I and three of my siblings were her choir. She taught us how to sing. And every church I’ve been in I joined the choir.” At BVUUF he joined the choir, the Service Associates, and social justice groups including the one that managed to get the Black Lives Matter banner up.
We are so lucky to have such an incredible singer, poet, writer, speaker, and friend among us!
Published August 15, 2023
