Larry Lantow’s best memory is Will’s 1834 visit

Larry Lantow is linked to Will Rogers and the Will Rogers Memorial in unique ways. His family moved to Claremore in 1934 and his father ran the King-Lawrence Lumber Company (later Lawrence Lumber and Everett Lumber), east of the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks in downtown Claremore.

W.R. Grimshaw, general construction contractor for Will Rogers Museum, purchased lumber from his father.

After a five-year stint in the U.S. Army, Lantow moved to Tulsa to attend the University of Tulsa and worked at Hope Lumber — and “Mr. Grimshaw was a customer.”

“The old man Grimshaw was really a great man,” he said.

Lantow remembers coming to the Memorial Nov. 4, 1938, but mainly remembers it was a “big deal for Claremore … all the hot shots were there for that ceremony.”

He has fondest recollections of the summer of 1934 when Will Rogers — during a summer band concert at the bandstand below Oklahoma Military Academy — spoke to homefolk about a trip to Russia.

A “Daily Telegram,” published in hundreds of papers across the nation on July 11 was datelined Claremore. It was in this column that Will made his famous Claremore quote “All I know is what I read in The Claremore Progress.”

Lantow attended Oklahoma Military Academy Junior College in the classes of 1936-37 and 1937-38, so was gone when the OMA band played for the Nov. 4, 1938 opening.

True the tradition of the male members of his family, Larry Lantow spent four years in the U.S. Army. Two of his brothers perished during World War II. Bob and Norman were paratroopers and “dropped down D-Day in France.” Bob died in battle six days later. Norman went on to be shot and captured, then rescued and sent to England to recuperate — and later died in Holland.

Brother, Bill, who lives in Claremore, served during the Korean conflict.
The Lantow names lives on in the name of the Claremore Zebra football field and stadium, especially honoring his brothers who died in service of their country. There were two sisters, the late Betty Nickerson, and Donna Fettig, who lives with her husband in Omaha.

After earning a degree in business management and accounting, Larry liked Hope Lumber and continued to work there, eventually becoming manager before retiring in 1982.

At 91, he still makes his home in Tulsa. He was in his element recently when former OMA cadets gathered for a reunion opening event at the Will Rogers Memorial and he looked around remembering 70 years and many changes ago.