Larry L. Kleweno, age 82, died October 14, 2020 at Cedar Village, Ness City. He was born on July 4, 1938 to Herman H and Pauline (Filbert) Kleweno in Ness City, Kansas at a maternity home.
Larry’s first home was southwest of Bazine, which he always called the “Home Place”. When his grandmother Filbert died in 1947 Herman and Pauline took their family into Bazine to live and care for Grandpa Filbert. Living at the South end of town there was room for a mild cow, chickens, rabbits, and ducks. His sister and Melford Shaben wanted to take Larry to the county fair, but he said, “No.” He wanted to stay home and take care of the chickens, rabbits, and ducks.
Larry attended the Bazine Grade school and completed his freshman year at Bazine High School. In 1952 the Kleweno family moved to Lenora, Kansas where he started his sophomore year. After filling the farm generator there was an explosion from the gasoline fumes, and he was badly burned. For the next four weeks he was hospitalized in Norton, but when gangrene set-in he was sent to a Denver hospital by train. They had to remove the windows to get him unloaded on the stretcher. Larry spent another 13 weeks in the hospital.
After graduating from high school, he was drafted and ruled ineligible because of the burns on his legs and hand. Larry went to Wichita for a short while to help a contractor from Norton erect steel frame buildings. Following the March 1957 blizzard, he worked with a telephone crew rebuilding lines around Ellis, Kansas.
When Darlene and Melford moved to Ness City in 1960, Larry moved to the farm where he remained until he need the cared of Cedar Village on January 28, 2018.
It was on a cold night in January 1964, when he asked for a ride in Marian’s new 1964 Chevy Impala SS. Their bonding began and they were married March 6, 1965 at the Bazine United Methodist Church.
Larry was a lifetime member of the Bazine Methodist church, worked hard, enjoyed the cattle, brothers-in-law, family, and friends and still wanted chickens in his later years. He enjoyed going to auctions with neal and Dean and collected Minneapolis-Moline tractors and many old cars. He preferred FORDS.
He was Dad to Laura and Linn and Grandpa to Taylor Murray and Samantha Kleweno.
He is survived by his wife, Marian; daughter, Laura Kleweno; son, Linn Kleweno and his wife, Jennifer and sister, Marlene Trible of Ingleside, Texas.
Larry was preceded in death by his parents; three sisters, Darlene Demoret, Wilma James, and Kathleen Slack; four nephews, Michael Slack, Roman Wiehebrink, Jr., John Kevin Landauer, and Barry Landauer; and niece, Sheely Delaney Wesley.
Funeral service will be at the Bazine Cemetery, Bazine, Kanas on Saturday, October 17, 2020, 12 O’clock Noon. The family requests casual attire. Viewing will be on Friday, October 16, 2020 from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Fitzgerald Funeral Home.
The family requests memorial contributions to Cedar Village, Ness County Bank Building Foundation, or the Ness County Historical Society.