Onsted vet clinic nurse took many 3 a.m. calls
5/31/2008ONSTED, Mich. - Marion Larson, 87, who with her husband, Dr. Roy Larson, ran Onsted Veterinary Clinic for about 25 years, died of cancer Tuesday in her Adrian home.
She lived in Adrian about 11 years after more than 40 years in Onsted, where she and her husband established the clinic in the late 1940s.
At first, they treated mostly large animals. By their retirement in 1974, with fewer farmers raising livestock, they mostly cared for pets.
The clinic was at their home. Mrs. Larson answered the phone - including the 3 a.m. calls from farmers whose cows were calving - and was surgical nurse and bookkeeper.
She was a regular volunteer for local functions ranging from her daughters' school activities to American Red Cross bloodmobiles to the Girl Scouts. She sang alto in the choir and taught Sunday school at Springville United Methodist Church, Onsted.
She grew up in Pontiac, Mich., and received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from what is now Michigan State University, where she met her husband when they were students. They married March 18, 1944, in Texas, where Dr. Larson was in the Army at Camp Hearne. He died Feb. 16, 1983.
Surviving are her daughters, Karen Pelham, Joanne Howell, Cheryl Yeutter, and Barb Meyers; nine grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
Services are at 11 a.m. today in Springville United Methodist Church, Onsted, where the body will be after 10 a.m. Arrangements are by the Brown-Van Hemert Funeral Home, Dunn Chapel, in Onsted.
The family suggests tributes to the Catherine Cobb Domestic Violence Program, Adrian; Hospice of Lenawee, or the church.