Larry Leslie Brown

Larry L. Brown, former Major League infielder, proud graduate of Lake Worth High School, beloved husband of Leni, father of three daughters, and grandfather of nine, died under the gentle care of Treasure Coast Hospice on Saturday, April 13, 2024.

Larry was best known for being a gritty and versatile infielder, drafted by the Cleveland Indians out of high school in 1958. After a few years in the minors, he became a starter for the team. He had an outstanding glove and arm, once called “one of the top shortstops in the league.” He played in Cleveland during the era of Rocky Colavito, Bob Feller, and Sam McDowell. He remained lifelong friends with his teammates Vern Fuller and Max Alvis. In 1966, Larry earned the Golden Tomahawk Award, given by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the most underrated player for the Indians. In 1970, for his professionalism on and off the field, he received the Cleveland Frank Gibbons/Steve Olin Good Guy Award.

Always both underrated and a good guy, Larry was also scrappy and determined, on the diamond and in life. After an on-field collision with left fielder Leon Wagner at Yankee Stadium in 1966, Larry powered past his skull fracture, returning to the Indian’s roster in just six weeks. He would call on this kind of indominable spirit many times in his life, willful and persistent to the end.

His time with the Indians drew to a close in 1970, when he joined the Oakland A’s. His teammates included Reggie Jackson, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzmann, Sal Bando, and Rollie Fingers. Larry was disappointed for decades that a back injury prevented him from being in the infield when they won the World Series in 1972. The following year, he signed with the Baltimore Orioles and closed out his career with the Texas Rangers in 1974.

Born in the coal-mining town of Shinnston, West Virginia, on March 1, 1940, Larry and his parents moved to Florida when he was two years old. His dad, Raymond Brown, had been a coal miner from the age of 14 and was searching for opportunity and a better climate for his wife, Dora Mae (Jones). Her rheumatoid arthritis confined her to a wheelchair and Ray hoped the tropical heat of South Florida could ease her pain. The family settled in Lake Worth and operated a neighborhood grocery store.

Larry spent his childhood on the heels of his brother, Dick Brown, five years his senior. They fished, surfed, cruised the streets of Palm Beach County on bicycles and later motorbikes, played basketball, football, tennis, golf, and endless games of baseball. A catcher who became known for being the only person in South Florida who could handle the heat delivered by local pitcher Herb Score, Dick made his Big League debut with the Indians the summer before Larry’s senior year of high school. Larry was determined to follow in his footsteps. And he did.

“I was a follower of those guys,” Larry said. “I wanted to be a pro baseball player by the time I was 12 or 13 when Herb and Dick signed with the Cleveland Indians.”

Larry and Leni knew each other in school, but never dated. When Larry’s mom passed away when he was 20, Leni sent him a condolence card. That prompted him to call her, and then persistently call her, leading to her breaking off with another fellow. The romance was on from there, so Dora had a hand in them coming together, even though she and Leni had never met.

When Larry’s baseball career ended, he turned his passion for tennis into a thriving local company, Sun Shader Hats. His patented visor design sold to tennis and golf shops across the country, as well as to top brands like Nike. Leni ran the front office, arriving cheerfully late almost every day with a tray of warm muffins or slices of homemade bread. It was a true family business, with all three of the girls and many of their friends working at the shop while teenagers.

When Larry and Leni sold the company, neither retired. By then living in Wellington, Larry worked as a driver for a medical company – he loved to drive and believed firmly that it was his ’56 red Thunderbird convertible that sealed Leni’s decision to marry him – and Leni worked in a local dentist’s office. They continued to be avid tennis players well into their 70s.

In recent years, Larry had been a loving and determined caregiver to Leni, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, a series of strokes left him debilitated by vascular dementia. Even so, they were ever the lovebirds, mom visiting him in memory care almost daily from her place in assisted living. He ended every visit with a kiss and three simple words: “I love you.”

Larry is survived by his wife of 62 years, Helen “Leni” (Boynton), daughter Laurie Brown of Wellington and her three children, Lacey, Landon, and Layton; daughter Leslie Brown of Colorado and her three children, Hunter, Kendall, and Easton, and daughter Leigh Brown Perkins of Sewalls Point, her husband James Perkins, and their three sons, MacCray, Benjamin, and Becket. He was preceded in death by his hero and brother, Dick, who died of a brain tumor at the age of 35.

No public service is scheduled at this time.

Donations in Larry’s name can be made to Treasure Coast Hospice..