Larry Gene Lovelace

1943 - 2021

Larry Gene Lovelace

December 21, 1943 - December 24, 2021

Longtime Texas newspaper editor Larry Gene Lovelace died after a short illness December 24, 2021, in Tomball, Texas, three days after his 78th birthday. He had worked for newspapers in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska for almost 50 years and was a frequent visitor to the Brazos Valley to enjoy stage productions.

He was born December 21, 1943, in Blair, Oklahoma. He graduated from Altus High School in Altus, Oklahoma, in 1962, where he was an outstanding student and starred in numerous theater productions. He was a paper boy, drove an ice cream truck and worked at a radio station among other jobs he held as a teenager.

He served in the U.S. Navy Reserves before serving four years in the U.S. Air Force. During his four years in the Air Force, Larry was a weatherman at Sembach Air Base in Germany, where he met and married Ingrid Thomsen, a Dane working on base as an au pair. Their son Larry Kenneth Lovelace was born there.

When he left the Air Force, Larry moved to Midland, Texas, where in 1967 he joined the Midland Reporter-Telegram, first as a photographer and later as news editor. The family moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where Larry attended classes at the University of Oklahoma, worked for the Daily Oklahoman and managed a movie theater.

The Lovelace family, which by then included daughter Lia Lundegaard Lovelace, returned to Midland after six months. Larry rejoined the Reporter-Telegram, acted in a number of theater productions and completed his bachelor's degree at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa.

In 1976, Larry joined the Houston Post as an editor. Daughter Kirsten Gerda Lovelace was born in 1980. In September 1989, he was hired as an editor at the new St. Louis Sun, but returned to the Houston Post when the Sun closed seven months later. When the Post itself shut down, Larry moved to Omaha, Nebraska, as an editor for the Omaha News. After two months, the Houston Chronicle lured him back to Texas to work in the Business Department before returning to the News Department as a news editor. He retired in 2015.

Larry enjoyed trips to the Brazos Valley to take in performances with his friend of almost 50 years, Robert C. Borden, at The Theatre Company and Brazos Valley TROUPE in Bryan, Navasota Theatre Alliance in Navasota, and Unity Theatre in Brenham.

Larry is survived by his wife Ingrid; his three children, Larry Kenneth Lovelace and wife Theresa, Lia Lovelace Myers and husband Mike, all of Tomball, and Kirsten Lovelace Lozano and husband Josh of Houston; grandchildren, Jared Lovelace and wife Courtney of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Erika Lovelace and husband Sergio, Eli, Sam and Joe, all of Tomball, Kaleb Bailey and wife Ocsana "Nonnie" of Clear Lake; brother Bill Lovelace and wife Pat of Hillsboro, Texas; and sisters, Elizabeth Ann Stern and husband Ron and Theda Joan Floyd, all of Altus, Oklahoma; two great-grandchildren, Julian Lovelace and Bryant Lovelace, both of Fairbanks, Alaska; six nieces and two nephews.

Funeral services were held on December 29, at Klein Funeral Home in Tomball.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made in Larry's name to the Alzheimer's Association at www.alz.org.