Larry R. Murray

Lawrence Roger Murray (Larry) passed away at Unity Hospital in Searcy, Arkansas on March 31, 2023 at the age of 96. The family will receive friends on Saturday, April 8, 2023 from 1:00 p.m. until the service time beginning 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Kimbro Funeral Home in Marks, MS with the interment to follow in Marks Cemetery. Larry was born on June 29, 1926, in Burgaw, North Carolina, to Neal B. and Mary Murray. The family called him Roger, but when he entered the Army, he was forced to go by his first name, Lawrence, which was soon shortened to Larry. Roger grew up in Burgaw, the youngest of four children. The oldest child was a girl, Elna, the rest were boys: Neal Jr., Russell, and Roger. After graduating high school, Larry Murray enlisted in the Army on August 30, 1944, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Larry did most of his military training in Florida. On the day his training unit was shipped out to Europe (and eventually fought in the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944), Larry was transferred to another unit who had just lost their company clerk (information specialist), because Larry had taken a business class in high school, and he knew how to type. Larry remained in Florida till the end of the war, where one of his responsibilities was training recruits to throw live grenades. As the war came to an end, Larry was transferred to Grenada, Mississippi, where an Army buddy, Billy Blaylock, introduced him to one of his cousins, Winifred Blaylock, from Kilmichael, Mississippi. She was working as a civilian secretary for the base commander of Camp McCain, an infantry training camp which also housed German prisoners of war. Larry and Winnie married on June 19, 1946, while Larry was still in the service. He was discharged on December 3, 1946. On January 19, 1949, Winnie gave birth to their only son, Lambert, in Greenwood, Mississippi, where Larry was working in an Army Surplus store. Within a year, Larry moved to Marks, Mississippi, where he helped to manage the Army Surplus store there, and kept the books. Over the next few years, he worked as the bookkeeper for a NAPA parts store and then for the Big Three Lumber Company, where he eventually became manager. While working at the lumber yard, Larry began to prepare state and federal income tax returns for several individuals and small businesses. In 1971, Larry left the lumber company and went to work for the Mississippi State Tax Commission as a tax auditor. Over the next 20 years, he served as the district supervisor for several of the tax districts in Northwestern Mississippi, and served as a principal trainer for incoming tax auditors. He retired from the tax commission on June 29, 1991, but continued to grow his private business of preparing income tax returns. During the more than 60 years that they called Marks their home, Larry and Winnie were an integral part of the Marks Church of Christ and were loved and respected by the many friends and neighbors that they touched. Due to Winnie’s declining health, and Larry’s onset of dementia, Larry and Winnie moved to Harding Place in Searcy, Arkansas to be close to their son Lambert. After Winnie’s death in 2015, Larry continued to live at Harding Place under the watchful care of a number of devoted caregivers as his dementia progressed. In November of 2020, he was moved to a dementia wing of The Springs of Searcy. His health began to decline during the last several months, and he died peacefully in his sleep with his son beside him at Unity Hospital in Searcy. Larry is survived by his son Lambert Murray and his wife McKay of Searcy, Arkansas; by his grandson Nathan Murray and his wife Carla and their three children, Henley, Julia and Landon of Oxford, Mississippi; and by his granddaughter Alice Anne Murray Light and her husband Brad of Lubbock, Texas. Kimbro Funeral Home 323 MLK Dr. Marks, MS 662-326-2881 www.kimbrofuneralhome.net

Larry R. Murray

June 29, 1926 - March 31, 2023