Lawrence Banks

Lawrence Vernon Banks (1930-2025)

Lawrence 'Larry' Banks, 94, of Detroit, Michigan, passed away in his sleep of natural causes, in his Nursing Care Center in Southfield, Michigan on February 27, 2025.

He was born at the Detroit Women's Hospital on July 15,1930 to Louis Banks and Erma (Wingo) Banks. His father worked at Chrysler and ran a restaurant in the Black Bottom neighborhood in the area off Chene and Mack on Detroit's East Side. His mother worked as an elevator operator and rose to some fame as an artist's model at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. His family moved around a lot, and he learned to make friends easily. His parents divorced when he was ten and he and his mother moved into the Detroit Brewster Projects. He spent weekends with his father, working in his restaurant.

Each year his parents would ship him off to one of his dad's brothers (uncles) or sisters (aunts) for the whole summer. Places like Chicago, Illinois; Gary, Indiana; Marion, Indiana; Mayfield, Kentucky; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Zachary, Louisiana (Larry's dad's hometown); Dayton, Ohio; Bronx, New York; and New Rochelle, New York.

His mother wanted him to be cultured so he took music and dance lessons. He was highly active at Northeastern High School. Lawrence was the photographer for the high school newspaper "The Review". Lawrence was also a member of the Camera Club, the Math Club, the Forum (Debate) Club, The El Rancho Grandy (Dance) Club, the Hi-Y Club, the Boy's Tennis Team, and he ran track. Larry also played drums in both the school Band and Orchestra. He really enjoyed Jazz; his favorite arrangement was Satin Doll by Duke Ellington.

After graduating from Northeastern High School in Detroit, he traveled throughout the upper Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois) in a Band. They were not in the Musicians Union and did not make any real money, but they had a very interesting time, he sold his drums and enrolled in college at the Detroit Institute of Technology, where he studied Accounting and Management. He did his Post Graduate Degree work in Electronic (Computer) Accounting at Wayne State University. These skills would all be instrumental when he was inducted into the U S Army. This was during the Korean War. After Basic Training, he served two years of active duty as a Cryptographer Specialist in the Signal Corp. G-2 Section. On October 17, 1953, Lawrence was transferred to the Army Reserve, Adjutant General Section for four (4) years. He received a Top-Secret Clearance, while he was in the Army.

Because he moved around a lot as a child, he joked he attended 14 different schools and that was why he married a schoolteacher. After serving in the Army, and after his first marriage ended, he settled back down in Detroit. In 1960 he met and married Alberta Ross, a schoolteacher from Pontiac, Michigan and together they raised their 3 children, with visits from his eldest son, Ronald Banks, from a previous marriage. They relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan, while he worked for the IRS as a US Treasury Agent. They came back to Detroit, and he later enrolled in Detroit College of Law night school, in their Real Estate Law program, because he had rental properties. Law School was not easy and expensive, so he left after two years.

He joined the Human Resources department of Detroit Diesel Allison, a division of GM in the 70's. And Larry later received an MBA, in a weekend graduate program from Indiana Northen Graduate School in Personnel Management, while his wife got her master's in education from the University of Detroit. He later retired from GM in the late-80s and formed two businesses under the name "Profit and Careers", a tax accounting service, often working for other Tax Services and a Personnel consulting service, doing outplacement counseling work, during the layoff crisis in the early 1990's, for Challenger, Gray and Christmas of Chicago.

Although both of their parents attended different churches Larry and Alberta joined Detroit Unity Temple together and Larry was very supportive of the Detroit Unity Church community, as an Usher and later Church Board Member. Larry also was a proud member of the Men of Unity and Optimist International, a community service organization. Larry and Alberta were proud scouting parents, and both took leadership roles in the local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts clubs in the Detroit area, where they encouraged the neighborhood children to embrace scouting, camping, and community project fundraising through candy, cookie, and calendar sales.

As loving parents, they endowed their children with goals that included education, philosophical religious exploration, and entrepreneurship. Larry laughingly said he was most proud he did not have to bail any of his children out of jail. He said they were either smart enough to not get caught or recalled he told them to use that one phone call to call someone else, who might come bail them out, because he and Alberta were not coming.

After retiring, Larry and Alberta traveled and cruised to fun, foreign lands to places like Montreal, Canada; Mexico City; and Barbados, until Alberta's passing in 1992.

He then joined travel clubs and kept traveling all over the world, well into his late 70's, memorably visiting Alaska, Egypt, and South Africa.

Lawrence Banks lived to the ripe old age of 94. And often said he was lucky to have lived such a good life, happy to have had so many wonderful experiences and blessed to have met so many remarkable people. As recently as last Christmas, he promised he had no regrets, lots of good memories and hoped he left a good impression on the people whose lives he touched.

To be honest, at 94 years of age, he was preceded in death by just about everyone he knew, including his wife Alberta Banks, his oldest son Ronnie and his youngest grandson Thomas Wall, so we will just list his surviving immediate family. His children Susan, Ross and Gina, Daughter-in-Law Beverly, sons-in-law Michael L. and Michael H., his grandchildren, Ross DeJuan (wife, Travonna B.), Ashley, Nicole and Maya, his great-grandchildren DeJuan, Madison, Thomas Jr., Aaron, Anistasia and the twins, Armani and Amir. He's also survived by many cousins and kin related to the Zachary, Louisiana Banks Families, and Pontiac, Michigan Ross Families. He was blessed with many friends and colleagues he kept in touch with and networked with, even in the later years of his life. Many of them blessed him by being present for his 94th birthday party last July.

Lawrence (Larry) Banks will always be remembered for his smile, his positivity and his well-meant, and often followed, accurate advice. We will always imagine hearing him ask "how are you doing" and "how's the family". We all could not have asked for a better father, husband or friend and although he has gone to his final rest, he will surely be missed. May his memory live on in the hearts of those who loved him. Smile and laugh when you think of him.