I met Lois where we were both in our 1st Quad City Music Guild show, Naughty Marietta.She became not only my voice teacher but a very close friend. She had such good advice and I know I would not have gotten roles at music Guild without her help. I think  of her every time I see constant comment tea which she would serve me after every voice lesson. We lost touch when I moved away but I still think of her fondly and often

I have so many nice memories of Lois. She and my mom were great friends. She drove our family to the hospital when mom was having my brother, John. The Quad City Music Guild breakfast was interrupted by mom going into labor! Lois drove us in her station wagon. Just so many wonderful times, too many to share here. We will miss her so much. 

September 1981. I was a sixteen year old freshman from Colombia, South America, who enrolled at St Ambrose to take pre-engineering classes and play tennis. My academic advisor had told me the week before that I needed to take an elective class outside of my field of study. That concept was foreign to me. So was everything else around me. To appease him, I signed up for a voice class. That’s why I found myself in Lois' studio that morning. It was my first voice lesson. I was scared. But I was excited that I was there to sing, an activity I had always enjoyed.

“Repeat after me,” she said and sang a scale. I sang it back to her. Her expression changed. She didn’t say a word for what seemed like an eternity. I was confused. She picked up on that and said. ”Oh my…we have a singer here.” She grabbed a tissue, smiled and reassured me that she liked what she heard. “OK dear boy. Let’s begin.” And that’s how my singing studies began.

For the next two years she did her best to teach me despite my many absences. Tennis consumed most of my time. St Ambrose had a highly ranked tennis team at the time. I was at Ambrose to study and play tennis, not to sing. Lois was never happy about that. She made that very clear.

I didn’t see Lois for 37 years until last November when I visited her at Ridgecrest Village. I didn’t expect her to remember me. I started the conversation by saying “You gave me my first voice lesson when I was sixteen. I was freshman from Colombia”. Her eyes lit up. “You are that tennis player. Aren’t you? What a waste of talent.” I spent the next hour reassuring her that my talent had not gone to waste. We had a wonderful talk. She loved every minute of it. So did I. I was particularly thrilled to be able to thank her for the way she changed my life. Thank you Lois.


Lois Larrabee Scholarship Fund At St. Ambrose University

Visitation Weerts Funeral Home

Funeral Service

James Buckmaster

Vera (Raymore) Buckmaster

Nelson Larrabee

Nancy (Jim) Garrow

Bill Larrabee

Jim Larrabee

Rebecca Larrabee

Marcea

Christopher

Sarah

Nancy

Rachel

Jacob

Alexis

Katie

Colton

Anthony

Kalienna

Vera

Peter

She was preceded in death by her husband, Nelson, and her siblings, Jean Pawlowski, Elizabeth Neikel, and James Buckmaster.

OBITUARIO

Lois V. Larrabee

3 febrero, 1929 – 16 febrero, 2020

Weerts Funeral Home

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