Lemuel L. LaRue

1923 - 2018

Lemuel L. LaRue

Lemuel L. LaRue, Jr. died at the age of 95 on Thursday, July 19, 2018. Known to friends and colleagues as L. L. or LaRue, he was born in Clinton, OK on January 11, 1923, to Lemuel and Alberta LaRue. As many other young men his age, he joined the national guard while still attending high school and was then recruited into military service when the United States entered World War II.

Eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant, LaRue served in the U.S. Army, 102D Infantry Division (Ozark) as a liaison pilot, flying a piper cub on the front lines near Maastricht, Holland. On the first of January 1945, he sustained severe injuries when his plane was attacked and he was forced to land. LaRue received a Purple Heart and the Air Medal with one oak leaf cluster for flying 35 sorties in support of infantry attacks against the enemy.

Prior to his deployment, LaRue received flight training at Hartley Field near Denton, where he met and married Margaret Beth Taylor. LaRue returned to Denton after the war and received a degree in accounting from University of North Texas. Following graduate work at University of Texas in Austin, LaRue and Beth returned to Denton where they raised their three daughters and were members of the First Christian Church.

LaRue had a long and successful career at Texas Woman's University where he eventually became Vice President of Fiscal Affairs. He also served in a similar capacity at University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa and then at University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth where he received the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine Founders Medal in 2003.

In retirement, LaRue was a loyal supporter of the Texas Longhorns, played golf and tennis at the Denton Country Club, learned to ski, loved to travel and enjoyed helping friends and family move into the computer age by supplying hardware, software and technical advice.

In 2014, LaRue and Beth moved to Garland, TX to live closer to daughter Kay Beth Kuner and where Beth, his life partner of 72 years, died on May 6, 2017.

LaRue is survived by three children: Kay Beth Kuner and husband Ekkehard Kuner of Garland TX, Karan Kennedy and husband Larry Kennedy of Atlanta GA and Connie Williams of San Angelo TX. He is also survived by grandchildren Taylor Bulloch and Christi Copeland of Austin TX, Patrick Kennedy of Denver CO and Brian Kennedy and wife Christina Kennedy of Birmingham AL. Five great-grandchildren include Harper and Haddie Copeland and Taylor, Avery and Leighton Kennedy.

The burial will take place at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Parkway in Dallas on July 30 at 1:00 pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations either to Texas Woman's University or the Denton Public Library.