LESLIE R. LARSEN, 78

Leslie R. Larsen, 78, of Fremont, died Monday, Oct. 11, 1999, at the A.J. Merrick Manor in Fremont.

Services were Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999, at the Frist Lutheran Church in Fremont. The Revs. Mark Grorud and Norman Freund officiated. The burial with military honors by the Fremont Honor Guard of American Legion Post 20 and VFW Post # 54 was in Memorial Cemetery in Fremont.

Leslie R. Larsen was born April 27, 1921, to Alfred and Alexandra (Christensen) Larsen in Dagmar, Mont.

He served in the Civilian Conservation Corps for a few years, and in 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he was sent to Africa, then to Italy to prepare for the invasion of Southern France, and then into Germany. He was honorably discharged in 1945, then five years later, he re-enlisted and was sent to Korea. He was once again honorably discharged in 1952.

On Sept. 29, 1999, after a mixup in military records, he was presented with the Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals, 49 years after earning them.

On April 2, 1951, he married Ruby Freund in Westby, Mont. After his military service, they came to Fremont. He owned Leslie Larsen Construction in Fremont from 1959 to 1979, and built more than 100 homes in the east part of Fremont. For the next 10 years, he and his wife did volunteer church work all over the country, and in Mexico.

He was a member of First Lutheran Church of Fremont, the Danish Brotherhood Lodge of Blair, Izaak Walton League, Disabled American Veteran’s Chapter 18 of Fremont, and the VFW Post 7419 of Nickerson. He was a former member of the Fremont Eagles Aeire 200 of Fremont, and served on the Fremont Board of Adjustment for several years.

He is survived by his wife, Ruby; three daughters and sons-in-law, Lana Larsen-Hunke of Fremont, Judi and Laurids Pedersen of Blair, and Kathy and Dave Jaspersen of Onieda, Ky.; brother and sister-in-law, Vernon and Ruth Larsen of Mountain Home, Ark.; two sisters, Violet Takahara of Tacoma, Wash., and Louella Nielsen of Missoula, Mont.; sister-in-law, Violet Larsen of Plentywood, Mont.; and seven grandchildren, Dustin and Nic, Lars and Andra, and Jon, Joey, and Karina.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and a sister.

Memorials are suggested to First Lutheran Church and to the Fremont Area Medical Center Hospice Program.

Ludvigsen Mortuary of Fremont was in charge of arrangements.