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Lorence (Larry) L. Smith
Lorence (Larry) L. Smith, 73, died Tuesday, March 18, 2008, at Mercy Regional Medical Center of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
A memorial will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, 2008, at the Los Pinos Fire Protection Building at 275 Browning Ave in Ignacio.
A potluck dinner will be held afterward.
Larry was born Oct. 24, 1934, in Collbran, Colorado, the son of Ethel Barker Smith and Kenneth Smith. After buying a ranch at the foot of the HD Mountains, the Smiths moved to Bayfield from northern Colorado. Larry attended school in both Bayfield and Ignacio.
After high school, Larry joined the United States Navy where he served on the LST 1159 in Korea.
Upon returning home, Larry worked on the family ranch with his father, drove truck, and worked in the gas and oil fields before following his love of leather crafts by attending Denver’s Emily Griffith Opportunity School to learn shoe repair. After losing a shoe repair shop in Delta, Colo. to fire, Larry attended and graduated from Oklahoma State Tech’s boot and saddle making school.
Larry returned to La Plata County, where he and his father, Ken Smith, opened Pine River Boots (later Custom Boots by Larry Smith) in Ignacio. He was a master craftsman who practiced his craft for over 50 years making thousands of made-to-measure cowboy boots and served a worldwide clientele. He was one of fewer than 100 boot makers in North America who made cowboy boots by hand; a three-month process.
In 2000, Larry turned his business into a boot making school. Over the years, numerous articles were written about him; he was honored by several awards by his peers; and he displayed his craft by the invitation of the Smithsonian Institute at the United States Bicentennial Arts and Crafts Fair in Washington, D.C. in 1976.
Larry’s hobbies included leather stamping, silversmithing, martial arts, woodworking, and gardening. He enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, camping, and had a soft spot for animals of all kinds. Larry built a 30’ by 50’ addition to the family home by laying adobe bricks that he made himself.
Larry was passionate and a perfectionist. He often said that over the years he had made only seven pairs of perfect boots, then he would say unfortunately all the boots were for the left foot.
Larry married Pauline Kennedy on June 20, 1958, in Bayfield and they had four children. They divorced in 1977. Larry married Cheryl Bruyette on June 28, 1980, in Grand Junction, and they raised her four children from a previous marriage.
Larry was preceded in death by his father, Ken, in 1984.
Larry is survived by his wife Cheryl; his mother, Ethel B. Smith, of Ignacio; his daughter, Lois Moss of Albuquerque; sons Kenneth Smith of Ignacio, Bill Smith of Denver, and Lee Smith of Ignacio; stepdaughters Dawn Montoya of Fort Collins, Michelle Murray of Doylestown Penn., Kristina Rodilosso of Henderson Nev. and William Bruyette of Davis, Calif. He also is survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, 11 step-grandchildren and one step- great-grandchild.
Memorial Contributions can be made to Annie’s Orphans 1630 CR 214 Durango,Colorado 81301.
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