Larry Lee Myers was born to Vernon and Elenor Myers on September 20, 1948, in Sterling, Colorado. He grew up on a farm and went to Red Willow School, a country school in Yuma County, through 6th grade. Larry then went to school in Yuma, starting in the 7th grade, and graduated from High School in May 1966. During his high school career, he tried all the sports the school offered, liking track and field the most. He excelled at pole vault and long jump, participating in the state meet for all four high school years.
Larry went on to school at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, for two years, going on to Colorado State College in Greeley after that. While there, the college became a university, so he graduated as part of the University of Northern Colorado’s first graduating class in 1970. After college, Larry started working for Skaggs Drug Center as a manager-in-training, staying with them through the summer of 1974, when he moved back to the farm. Larry farmed millet, sunflowers, and winter wheat there and retired in 2018.
Larry married Joan Marie Zmina on August 20, 1977, and had their son Craig the following summer. Larry and Joan were also foster parents to two boys over a couple of years. Larry and Joan enjoyed retirement by traveling to many places, taking cruises to the Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska, and the Panama Canal. They became ‘snowbirds’ in 2019, buying a home in Mesa, Arizona, and living there part-time until 2022.
Larry moved to Mesa full-time after Joan’s passing, preferring the consistent heat to the barometric chaos of Colorado. Larry met some of his best friends in Mesa and became loyal to the “liars club,” a Monte Vista morning coffee group for men. In this community, Larry was also gifted with Arlys’ companionship. One of their favorite memories was sitting beneath the “apple tree” Larry created in his home as a surprise for Arlys.
Larry believed life is what you make and that it was better to laugh than cry about it. He always seemed to have a joke ready for whatever subject was on the table. He filled his time with golf, bowling, trap shooting, and building wooden toys sold at craft shows around eastern Colorado. He later created an artwork called Intarsia, a threedimensional wooden inlay, making many pieces still on display around Yuma today. He certainly was a gifted woodworker.
Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Vernon and Elenor Myers; his daughter Mary Katherine, mother-in-law Helen Zmina; brothers-inlaw Orval Rawson and David Zmina; sisters-in-law Joyce Zmina and Kathy Zmina Kranak, his uncle and aunt Walter and Esther Ahnstedt, his uncle Lawrence Ahnstedt, and his wife Joan Myers. He leaves behind his son and wife, Craig and Krystal Myers, his grand-daughter Callie Myers, his sister Cathy Rawson, niece and husband Dondi and James Kratzenstein, niece and husband DeAnn and Kevin Sewell, and many cousins and friends.
Services will be held at a later date in Yuma, CO., and a Celebration of Life will be held this fall at Monte Vista in Mesa, AZ.