Obit: Larmon, Eleanor "Isadore" (1910 - 2007)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Larmon, Brothers, Murray, Schwartz

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Larmon, Eleanore Isadore (1910 - 17 Nov. 2007)

Eleanor I. Larmon

NEILLSVILLE -- Eleanor Isadore Larmon, 97, died Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007, at Neillsville Health and Rehab Center.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, 2007, at First Presbyterian Church, Marshfield.

Buchanan Funeral Home of Neillsville is assisting the family with the arrangements.

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----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) Thursday, November 22, 2007

Isadore Larmon

Eleanor Isadore (Brothers) Larmon, 97, formerly of Marshfield, died Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007, at Memorial Medical Center, Neillsville, Wis.

She was born in Center, Colo., in 1910, a daughter of Jesse Calvin and Agnes Christina (Murray) Brothers. Her father was a newspaperman and printer, and the family moved to Kansas and South Dakota before they settled in Wisconsin when Isadore was 4. She grew up in Polley and graduated from high school in 1917 in Gilman. She attended what was then Taylor County Normal School in Medford and Eau Claire Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) to get her degree in teaching. She subsequently taught in Gilman prior to her marriage.

Isadore was married to Sam Schwartz of Minocqua in 1934 and they lived in Minocqua for the next 24 years. She taught grade school in Shawano, then became the first special education teacher in Minocqua. She continued with that specialty until she retired.

Sam Schwartz died in 1954, leaving Isadore with a 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son to raise. She continued teaching and taking college courses during that time, as well as running the family store in Minocqua. She also ran for and was elected to the first board of education for the new Lakeland High School in Minocqua, and seven other northern Wisconsin towns.

Isadore was married in 1958 to Lawrence Larmon of Hannibal -- her high school classmate from many years before. After 1960, Isadore taught in both Gilman and Minocqua and lived in Hannibal until 1998. Lawrence preceded her in death in 1997.

Isadore moved to The Purdy (now The Angelus Retirement Community), Marshfield in 1998 where she spent eight happy years before her health necessitated her moving to Neillsville Memorial House. She had been in Neillsville since November of 2006.

Writing was Isadore's life-long passion, particularly writing poetry. She was first paid for writing an article for the Sunday Milwaukee Journal when she was 11 years old. Her next publications were a poem and a story in her college's paper. She went on to be published in several magazines, and a highlight of her life was when she won the Jade Ring Honor in 1957 for a short story competition held by the Wisconsin Regional Writers.

She went on to be named the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin in 1966. Her poetry, stories and essays are found in numerous publications, notably in anthologies edited by the late Wisconsin author August Derleth. She has also received numerous other prizes for her writing.

She has been a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, the Wisconsin Regional Writers, and most recently the Marshfield Area Free Verse Poetry Group. She participated until her early 90s in a "round robin" writing group, and gave poetry readings in Marshfield and Eau Claire as recently as 2003, at the age of 93.

In later years, Isadore worked with and became a benefactor for the Marshfield Medical Foundation in the study of cancer and its relationship to alcohol. Her esteem for the Marshfield Clinic and its research staff was a factor in her moving to Marshfield.

Isadore was predeceased by her parents; both husbands; and eight siblings, Benjamin Franklin Brothers, Agnes Griselda Brothers, Alfred Tennyson Brothers, Rudyard Kipling Brothers, Jesse Calvin Brothers Jr., Woodrow Wilson Brothers, Rosalind Lucile Brothers Jessen Chubb, and Priscilla Cordelia Brothers.

She is survived by her son, Dr. Henry Jesse Calvin (Linda) Schwartz of Honolulu, Hawaii; her daughter, Dorothy Schwartz of Piscataway, N.J.; six grandchildren, David (Colette) Schwartz and Michael (Laura) Schwartz of California, Nancy (Bruce) Lichtman of Virginia, Karl McClean and Keesha McClean of New Jersey, and Klemote McClean of Florida; and a step-granddaughter, Raven Sat'Heru of New Jersey; and six great-grandchildren.

She is also survived by a sister, Carol Salome Brothers Bartlett of California, James Donnell Brothers of Washington, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, at Hansen Funeral Home, Marshfield.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, at First Presbyterian Church, Marshfield. Music will be provided by Maldon Plank, organist; and Don Helgerson, soloist. She will be interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Woodruff.

Buchanan Funeral Home of Neillsville assisted the family with the arrangements.