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Memorial services for John M. Larson, age 94, of Lemmon, SD, will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, July 2, 2021 at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Lemmon, SD.  Pastor Spencer Allen will officiate with burial to follow in the Greenhill Cemetery at Lemmon.

The funeral service will be livestreamed through John's obituary on www.evansonjensenfuneralhome.com . and a link will be made available at the top of the obituary.  You can view the funeral by clicking on the link "View John's Funeral Service Here".

A Gathering of Friends and Family will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 1, 2021 at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Lemmon.

John Manley Larson was born in the family farmhouse February 2, 1927 to John L. and Amanda (Vigen) Larson. He grew up on the farm that had been homesteaded by his father in 1906.  John or "Bud" attended grade school at Spring Butte country school and graduated from Lemmon High School in 1944.

After graduation, John started farming with his Dad, but due to the war, he decided to enlist in the Navy in early 1945. He needed his parents' signatures to join as he was still 17. The night before he left for Bismarck to enlist a three day blizzard struck the area. After the storm, he decided to stay home and help his dad farm. John was a farmer and rancher from that time on and took over the farm from his dad in 1952.

John met Inez "Tootie" Christman in 1943 when she visited school with her sister. There were two of her sisters and two more of her cousins in his class. John's recollection was of meeting a small, young, cute looking girl but she remembers that he said "Not another Christman!" Despite this shaky introduction, John married Tootie on Oct 14th, 1951. They would have been married 70 years this October.

John and Tootie raised 5 children. The Larson kids remember a happy, carefree childhood and a loving dad who was always there for them. He attended their every event from baseball games, track meets, wrestling matches and 4-H shows to school and church programs. He loved to take his kids fishing where much of his time was devoted to preparing and untangling lines rather than fishing himself. He had a cheerful disposition and his kids all remember going outside to find him by following the songs he would frequently whistle.

John loved music and sang at many weddings and funerals. He was part of several men's choirs and mixed chorus's during his life. He also enjoyed being on bowling and horseshoe teams for many years.

John's life as a farmer/rancher was exceptional due to all the changes that he saw. He remembered horse drawn equipment for haying and thrashing machines for harvesting. He told of how he and his brother-in-law Ralph Gaugler hooked an International WD9 tractor to an International M tractor and pulled a 4 bottom plow to break up sod, running day and night to get their crop in. He loved the ranching part of his life as well. He worked hard to improve his cattle. In 1963, he went to a school in Denver, Colorado where he learned how to Artificially Inseminate (AI) cows. In 1968 he started AIing his Hereford cows to Simmental and thus began Larson XL Simmental.

John and Tootie liked to travel and went to Indonesia, the Netherlands, England and Norway. There they rode on elephants, boated the canals of Amsterdam, visited Churchill's war bunkers and visited his maternal grandmother's birthplace, respectively. They also spent 17 winters together in Texas after their retirement.

John was a man of faith and tried to live faithfully to the precepts of God's word his entire life. He raised his family with faith in God and Sunday church attendance was a normal part of life. He and his neighbors built the Prince of Peace church in 1957 and that building is now Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon.

John passed away on Saturday evening, June 19, 2021 at the Five Counties Nursing Home in Lemmon, SD.

Grateful for having shared his life are his wife of 69 1/2 years, Tootie, son Bill (Colleen), daughter Barb Stensgard (Ron), and sons Alan (Gillian), Jeff (Kristi), Paul (Becky), and grandchildren Todd Larson (Judy), Amanda Anderson (Chet), Matt Larson (Krista), Katie Stensgard, Jamie Cota (Wade), Luke Stensgard (Kaley), Hannah Goodnight (Caleb), John Larson (Kathleen), Haley Larson, Sadie Langemo, Isabelle Larson, Finn Larson and 31 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents John L. and Amanda Larson, brother, Gerald Larson, sister Alice Gaugler, infant daughter and grandson Luke Thomas Larson.