LAWRENCE MAURICE THOMPSON

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Larry Thompson on April 18, 2001 at La Verendrye hospital in Fort Frances, Ont.
Larry was born Dec. 8, 1928 in Dr. D.C. MacKenzie’s Hospital in Fort Frances to Grace Mudge Thompson and James A. Thompson, their second child. His heart was in Mine Centre, Ont., which he called home for the better part of his life. Just within the last two years he had to move into Fort Frances due to failing health.
His early years were spent at The Portage, Mudge’s Camps, located 13 miles to the south of Mine Centre on Grassy Narrows Lake, which had been built by his grandparents, George and Cora Tripp Mudge, about 1924 after their hotel in Mine Centre burned.
Depression days and those following were hard ones but his favourite memories were of those times when he was growing up, with all his uncles, aunts, and cousins and grandparents living off the land and sharing what they had together at the camp.
It was here that his love of fishing began early in his boyhood and it remained his lifelong passion.
Larry’s working years began as a young teenager when WWII was raging and he went into the bush camps in the logging business. A boy became a man in a hurry and he learned to operate the big Cats and heavy machinery, as well as work with horses and on the log drives to the mill.
In the late 1940s, he moved to Shebandowan, Ont. to operate his own boat rental and minnow business, and assist his grandmother and uncle in the running of the family hotel there. He also worked for Ontario Hydro for a time, then followed his keen interest in mining at Cold Stream Mines, and from there he went out west and was employed in various mines in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In the late 1960s, he returned home to Mine Centre to take up logging, where he was self-employed and usually worked alone. He operated his own business until retirement.
Larry never married and he answered to no one. He was a free spirit who loved the freedom of the outdoor life and fishing was his main love. Family and friends will recall the many expeditions he organized to take them fishing to remote and difficult spots to try for the big ones.
“We’ll have to go fishing” was the standard invitation, if he liked you.
He also loved to hunt, and he enjoyed prospecting for gold and other minerals, staking mining claims, looking over land and properties, and picking berries and mushrooms (bungos) was a summer event for him.
A good homemade blueberry pie would light up his face.
He had compassion for animals and he and his dog, Lucky, went everywhere together; they could regularly be seen driving in the old truck around the back roads keeping an eagle eye on whatever was going on in Mine Centre–which he perceived to be his own personal domain.
He was a great source of information about the history of the area and his recollections were interesting and colourful, if not always entirely accurate.
Larry was an avid collector of just about everything, as his home, property, and surroundings in Mine Centre readily confirm to the eye of passers-by or visitors. He was a sociable man who loved company–“Come on in” was his response to a knock on the door before he even saw who it was.
Those who knew him well share the opinion that Larry probably should have been born 100 years earlier in time in order to enjoy the lifestyle he felt comfortable with.
He was predeceased by his mother, Grace and stepfather, Andrew A. Matchett; father, James A. Thompson; stepfather, Alfred Pettersen, maternal twin uncles, George W. and Edmund I. Mudge; maternal aunts, Florence Mudge Struve and Mary Mudge Baldwin; and step-siblings, Lillian, Vernon, Lindsay, and Carl Matchett.
Two favourite cousins, George Mudge and Carson Baldwin, also predeceased him within the last two years; and brother-in-law, Frank Babcock, last of all.
Larry will be lovingly remembered by his surviving family: sister, Cora Thompson Schorsch (Albert) of Chicago, Ill., and their children, Albert Jr. (Betsy), Nancy King (James), Brian (Rosemary), Kurt (Joanne), Gregory (Vicky), Glenn (Mary), and Jennifer Oliver (Willie).
Sister, Marilyn Matchett Bell (Ivan) of Fort Frances, Ont., and their sons, Michael and Lindsay (Lesley).
Sister, Naida Matchett Wolff (Joseph) of Thunder Bay, Ont., and her children, Gracie Fults Gushulak (David), Diane Fults Murphy (Kenneth), and Grant Wolff.
Sister, Lois Matchett Babcock of Nanaimo, B.C., and her children, Clay Flinders (Becky), Jason Flinders (Lori), and Melissa Flinders Jeffery (Floyd).
Sister, Carol Matchett Booth (Jack) of Devlin, Ont., and their children, Andrea Silander (Gary), Carla Marschalk (Troy), Scott (Brooke), and Allyson.
Also surviving are 33 great-nieces and nephews, including two sets of twins and one set of triplets, and many cousins. We also remember Larry’s special and faithful friends, Jack and Teresa Bolen, who have always been there for him, and especially in the last few years when his health was so precarious.
Larry expressly directed that no funeral service be held for him. In respect of his wishes, cremation has taken place and his final resting place is to be with his beloved grandfather, George Mudge Sr.
Larry has at last crossed over his final portage. He lived his life as a true spirit and always did it his own way. He was a man who had a certain presence about him and was a “character” who will not readily be forgotten.
Take your rest, in God’s Peace.
If friends so wish, a memorial to honour his memory may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, 920 Frenette Ave., Fort Frances, Ont., P9A 3N4, or the Arthritis Society, 209 McIrvine Rd., Fort Frances, Ont., P9A 3N3.
< *c>The Woodman’s Dog
Forth goes the Woodsman, leaving unconcerned the cheerful haunts of man to wield the axe and drive the wedge in yonder forest drear.
From morn to eave his solitary task.
Shaggy, and lean and shrewd, with pointed ears and tail left long, half lurcher and half cur–his Dog attends him.
Close behind his heel now creeps he slow; and now with many a frisk, wide-scampering, snatches up the drifted snow with ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout;
Then shakes his powdered coat, and barks for joy.