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Sharing Memories And Lessons Of Life

photo by L.M. Photoworks Larney and Sue McGrath love the less traveled roads of Vermont and the small towns.

photo by L.M. Photoworks Larney McGrath traveled the world in defense of his country, but still calls Vermont his home and heart.

photo by provided Wearing a uniform made by his mother from his uncle's WWII uniform, Larney grew up with family who served both at home and in the Armed Forces.

Tuesday April 11, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

Larney McGrath has moved over thirty times in his life and served his nation in distant corners of the world. Despite all the miles and life lessons acquired in his travels, McGrath holds true to the lessons learned in rural Vermont where family, service, work and music were lived and are still engrained in his life today.
    When you mention jazz great Louis Armstrong most people would not imagine ‘Satchmo’ coming to Lake Bomoseen and sitting down to dinner with Vermonters. Yet for Larney McGrath one vivid early memory was seeing his sister and mother bustling around the kitchen table and getting ready for company. When Larney queried who the company was his sister replied with patience, “Mr. Armstrong is coming to dinner. You know, the jazz great.” Larney’s step- father Frank O. Ethredge graduated from the Julliard School of Music, was a friend of Armstrong and had played at the Chicago Cow Palace Night Club with Armstrong. The jazz great traveled with a 28 piece band but was looking for a tenor guitarist. Larney’s father was a classical violinist and jazz pianist ,but had never played a tenor guitar before and after he was asked to play with Armstrong went to a pawn shop for one and taught himself by the time the show went on. Armstrong and his band came to Lake Bomoseen in the summers of 1953-57 to play gigs and have dinner with Larney’s father and family at their home in Wallingford.
    The lesson of hard work is also one that shaped McGrath through his life. His father managed Jake’s Store in Huntington and the First National Grocery Store in Richmond and his mother would cook all day in a restaurant and go to work at the Shirt Factory that made shirts for the soldiers overseas. “We all had tasks and responsibilities even from the youngest age,” remarked McGrath. “I can remember being three or four and having simple tasks like taking apples out of the colander and other food preparation responsibilities. Even in our school we learned to work together and to respect elders. When I lived in Ferrisburgh my teacher was Mrs. Carpenter and we learned our school work, but were always taught not to steal, not to hurt others and that family came first. The reality was in our house and in the state at the time I was growing up if you wanted something you had to work for it.”
    While McGrath’s path took him into a military career and serving his country from 1961-1994, he took with him the lessons learned growing up in Vermont. “I moved twenty-five times in my first twenty-three years of service,” recollected McGrath. “I served in twenty different countries and have seen people from all over the earth. Some things are still the same. Work, family and music are parts of all people and all cultures.”
    Currently Larney and Sue McGrath live near Castleton with their adopted pups and horses and a breathtaking view of one of Vermont’s finer lakes.  Their marriage in November 2011 brings them both full circle to their Vermont roots and lessons learned about family and celebration of it. Larney had twin boys from his first marriage and Sue had twin girls. Both were raised in a large family in rural Vermont and grew up working jobs from a very young age and are fiercely devoted to family. While there are places on the planet a bit warmer that require less shoveling, both call Vermont home because of the children, grandchildren and a lifestyle that they hold dear. While there are more stories to tell and gatherings to have, both Larney and Sue are right where they want to be, at home on the lake near the towns that taught them well and served as a backdrop for their lives no matter how far away.

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