Lois Eunice LARSEN

1904 - 1977

• Name	Lois Eunice LARSEN
  Birth	May 24 1904
  Gender	Female
  Death	Oct 17 1977
  Burial	Oakridge-Glen Oak Cemetery, Westchester, Cook, IL, United States
  Person ID	I17	Fisher
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2015

  
  

  Father	Charles E LARSEN,   b. 8 Aug 1868, Oslo, Norway d. 6 Dec 1941, Cook, Chicago IL USA (Age 73 years)
  Mother	Hannah Bertena Olsen LARSEN,   b. Apr 08 1869, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States d. Dec 06 1960 (Age ~ 90 years)
  Marriage	Jul 16 1892
  Family ID	F114	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Asa William GUNN,   b. 15 Jul 1894, Buda Illinois USA d. 12 Feb 1963, Oak Park Illinois USA (Age 68 years)
  Marriage	Oct 14 1924
  Children	1. Living   2. William Chester GUNN,   b. 16 Sep 1929, Oak Park, Illinois d. 7 May 2014, Scottsdale AZ (Age 84 years)
  Family ID	F113	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Jun 2014

  
  

• Event Map

  Burial - - Oakridge-Glen Oak Cemetery, Westchester, Cook, IL, United States  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Lois E Larsen Lois Eunice Larsen on a horse– c. 1917
  		Lois Larsen Gunn
  		WC Gunn Wedding Day

  
  

  Headstones

  Lois Eunice Gunn Grave Plot: Section 3 Lot 378

  
  

  Histories

  At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

  
  

• Notes

  By Nadine Gunn Fisher Lois Eunice Larsen Gunn was the youngest of four children of Charles and Hannah Bertena Olsen Larsen. She was born in 1904 and was ten years younger than Asa when they married on October 4, 1924. My mother had an enthusiastic zest for life. She was a loving mother who enjoyed her children and shared her husband's enthusiasm and love for their grandchildren. She enjoyed skating, swimming, partying, or just talking. Because she was so outgoing, everyone loved her. I often came home to find strangers living in our basement because Lois frequently brought homeless people to the house on Taylor Avenue. During the depression years there was the Mastrud family who were down on their luck and then years later, the Plummers, a couple who were evicted from their home. Mrs. Plummer was an Ouija Board reader but she used a stick instead of the traditional pointer. One day she sent me to the back yard to find one and with that stick moving on the Ouija board, she told me I would have four boys. I was so convinced of her powers that I didn't believe the doctor when he told me at her birth that Jan was a girl. Lois Gunn was a very hard worker. When she graduated from the eighth grade she worked for Jean Stanford, a successful beautician in Oak Park. Mrs. Stanford taught her everything there was to know from manicuring to permanent waves. Mom practiced on me and my brother Bill and my hair always looked fancy in my Shirley Temple hairdos. One time she even gave Bill a permanent. She realized her dream of owning her own beauty parlor when she opened Lois' Beauty Shop on Chicago Avenue near Marion Street in Oak Park. Lois Gunn loved to talk but her speech was taken away from her due to a stroke when she was only 57 years old. She lived for 14 years only able to speak a few words and phrases. When Asa Gunn died suddenly, Lois lived with her daughter and family in Elmhurst. It was sad to see this "Mrs. Independence", this spunky lady unable to drive a car or live alone- She loved to drive and one day she and Nadine went to a local Ford dealership. Lois got behind the wheel of a new car and pretended she was driving knowing that she probably would never be able to regain that skill. She wanted to do her share even with her handicaps suffered from the stroke. So she would either take us all out to dinner once a week or cook for us in her little apartment in the house on Euclid Avenue, In later years she bought steak or chicken at least once a week that her son-in-law broiled on the outside grill. The kids in the neighborhood liked her too because she often took them and the Fisher kids to Mario's for pizza. Grandma lived with us for thirteen years. This was a good experience for our children because they were able to return the love that Grandma and Grandpa Gunn had shown them all their lives. They were kind and solicitous of her and even though she was able only to speak a few words, they all understood her. Katie especially seemed to know instinctively what Grandma wanted when no one else understood. This ability to communicate was ironic since Katie had never heard Lois speak normally because she was only three months old when Lois had a stroke. Lois Gunn died in a nursing home on October 17, 1977. Ironically, James Matthew Nelson was born on October 19, the day of her funeral. As Homer said in 700 B.C ”one generation springs forth and another ceases”.