Larry’s Story

Can the gift of an inanimate object change one’s life?

Mabel was like part of my wife’s family. Sadly, I never knew her son Larry, as he died shortly after I married into the family. 1987 was the year of his passing. Mabel however, was a dear friend until her passing in 1995, at the age of 89. She’d come in from Cleveland, to Geauga County for all the family events, like birthdays, Easter, and Christmas. She was like a grandmother to all our kids. Although not a relative, she was in fact, called “Gramma Mabel”, and we all loved her.

Our extended family was Mabel’s only family after Larry’s passing. When she died in 1995, there was an emptiness, as my own parents had passed just about a year earlier. The next task was to go through her things and clear out her house. I remember helping one day, and I came across a case and opened it. I had never seen a violin in person. I was 35 or 36 years old. I didn’t think too much of it as I learned it had belonged to her son, Larry, who I didn’t know much about.

Many of you may have seen the 1955 Disney movie, “Lady and the Tramp”. Larry Roberts (his stage last name) was the voice of Tramp. Larry also served in both WWII and Korea. In WWII, he served in Patton’s 3^rd Army, which, as I understand, liberated at least one Concentration Camp in Austria. I’ve often wondered what went through his mind, as a Jewish young man who was, to those prisoners, an angel of hope. In Korea, he entertained troops. I have heard he entertained alongside Bob Hope and others. After the war he performed in the comedy, night club scene. I really wish I had known him.

That Christmas, I opened a gift from my in-laws, and it was a new violin case, with Larry’s fiddle inside, freshly set up. I couldn’t have been more surprised. Fortunately, I also received 3 months of lessons! I had no idea how to even hold it, and for the record, I still hold the bow “wrong”. A ten year old, first year violin student recently visited Red Hill and told me I held the bow “pretty good”. An unforgettable compliment! I took my 3 months of lessons and learned a few scales and a few tunes, but I didn’t renew my lessons after 3 months. I often played around with the scales but didn’t really advance any more.

In the summer of 1998, I was at Red Hill with my wife and kids. The then-Director of Red Hill was removing, what was then believed to be, Patrick Henry’s violin from its case in the museum. I asked if I could simply touch it! What an amazing feeling it was to hold that instrument. My sons, who were maybe 6 and 8 years old, also held the prized piece. What a thrill it was for all of us! The Director asked if I played. I told him that I played a little.

What a surprise it was, a short time later, when I received a note from him in the mail. He asked if I’d be interested in playing that fiddle at a ceremony marking the 200^th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s death. It was nearly a year away, June 6^th, 1999, so I knew I had time to practice and answered with a resounding YES! Almost daily, for the next year I practiced my (still) favorite D scale and learned Amazing Grace. I also wrote a tune, I appropriately call, Red Hill.

In June of 1999, my family attended a Patrick Henry Descendant’s gathering, which ended at Red Hill for the ceremony, at which I played. My amateur playing, and the fact that I wasn’t permitted to tune the instrument to full pitch, and my poor relative tuning skills, resulted in a rather “bluesy” rendition of Amazing Grace, but the violin itself was a big hit, despite my playing. Somewhere there is even a picture of Virginia’s Lt. Governor at the time, John Hager, holding the fiddle. I carried it around after the ceremony, prepared to guard that thing with my life! For the record, recently it was discovered that the fiddle belonged to John Henry, the youngest son of Patrick and Dorothea Henry. John was the one to inherit Red Hill after his father’s passing. The instrument is housed in the Red Hill Museum and is a treasured part of the collection.

The fiddle from Cleveland was then tucked away, pretty much untouched for the next 20 years.

In the summer of 2021, I decided to get a crack in the instrument’s top repaired, and I learned it was probably made around “the turn of the 20^th century” according to the violin shop owner in Cleveland. It was a good, student grade instrument, with a carved bass bar. That meant nothing to me. All that matters was, it was mine, and it had been gifted to me, and had belonged to a WWII hero in my eyes, not to mention, the voice of Tramp!

I took a few more lessons to get the hang of reading music. I play guitar, but I don’t sight-read at all. After retirement from the Geauga County Public Library in the spring of 2022, I began traveling to Virginia more and my time in Ohio became inconsistent, so I stopped with the lessons, but kept playing and writing tunes. After acquiring another fiddle, this instrument began to simply be referred to as Larry, and with some encouragement, it soon became a part of my interpretation of Patrick Henry. In 2023 alone, “Larry” and I have played tunes for about 3,000 people at Red Hill and at other speaking events.

So, how did the fiddle from Cleveland change my life? It opened the door for me to not only touch, but to play the museum piece at Red Hill. Also, although I had started speaking about, and sometimes portraying Patrick Henry in Ohio, the graveside ceremony in 1999 was my first engagement at Red Hill. After that, I was invited to participate in Living History events for school groups. From there, my involvement grew to where I am today. Twenty-five years of work at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill began with the gift from my in-laws, of an old fiddle and a few lessons.

These days, when I am at Red Hill, Larry resides in the Henry House where visitors can perhaps imagine it as Patrick Henry’s fiddle, alongside a piano forte like the one his wife played. When I’m in Ohio, the violin is carefully packed away in its case. That one hundred and twenty year old, “student-grade” instrument that belonged to a hero, is one of my most prized possessions.

Larry changed my life.