Larry Mitchell Obituary
2025-02-10 - Monday - 05:54 PM - Larry Mitchell Log

Larry Ellis Mitchell passed away on February 3, 2025, at the age of 76, in Hospice House of Tacoma, Washington. Larry was born in Seattle, WA on August 1, 1948 to Reid L. Mitchell & Edna Wilson.

Larry will be remembered for his love for puns. When telling jokes, he would sometimes purposely mispronounce words. He liked combining words too. He enjoyed telling each person individually the joke of the day, you would have to hear him say the same joke again and again because it was that good. Larry loved watching Johnny Carson, Gun Smoke, Mash, Gutfeld, Barney Miller, and Cheers.

Larry was known as the singing drummer. He started playing the drums when he was very young. Larry wrote at least 10 Christian worship songs and published a CD in January 2014. Before that he was involved with a Christian band called SONday for about 10 years. Since 1966 he played drums and sang in many northwest bands including 4 Below Zero, The Rouges, Child, Fire and Rain, Good Blessing, Lodestar, Listen, Wind Fair, Shooter, Lud Stetson and the Firetones, Busy Body, Dune, That Happy Feeling, and Bacchus. When he discontinued his secular bands, Larry told his wife, Marilyn, “You can’t play in a pigpen without getting covered with mud”. Then he only participated in church bands, like Mt View Alliance, Rivers of Grace, and Gethsemene Ministries; often he was the worship leader. He also played bass guitar when requested.

He came to Shelton from Seattle in 1977 to learn the real estate business from his Dad, Reid L. Mitchell. The hard-working Larry was President of the Mason County Board of Realtors in 1982. He owned his company Invest Reality in Shelton until June 2010 when Richard Beckman Realty Group LLC purchased the assets of Invest Realty. About 10 years ago, he started the Shelton Music Store LLC in Shelton with Brian Hellenthal. He was still managing that music store and selling real estate until December 2024 (he didn’t really get a chance to retire).

For the last 20 years, he was involved in Gethsemane Ministries of Union, Washington. Each June Larry would set up the music equipment for the Breaking of the Bread Christian Retreat at Cougar Mountain Bible Camp in Yelm, WA for many years.

Before major surgery in October 2023, Larry gave up smoking because he wanted to live, and he actually wanted to quit before that. His nurse said, "By the time you leave the hospital, you won't be physically addicted to cigarettes anymore." Larry looked at her and declared, "Okay, I quit." From that day on, whenever he had an urge to smoke, he would proclaim: "Mr. Jones, get out of here."

Late in 2024 he also went on a gluten-free diet. He kept saying “I can’t eat cookies anymore”.

Larry was an avid outdoors man who loved hunting and fishing. He once shot a buffalo while hunting with the Crow Indians in Montana. He enjoyed going on road trips in his RV with his wife Marilyn. He loved his fishing trips with his friends in Alaska where he caught a halibut as big as him. He went turkey hunting many times in the Spokane area. He would go fishing and hunting and mushroom picking with his son Michael. He often went fishing with his daughter Jayne.

Larry is survived by his wife Marilyn Mitchell; his children and grandchildren: David Mitchell, Don Mitchell and his children Vanessa and Lilly; Jayne Mitchell Marcum, and her children Andrew and Thomas; Michael Scafe and his children Joshua, Abigail, Silas, and Naomi.

In the 1990s, he started learning what it means to be a real Christian from Pastor Mark Sartori of Mountain View Alliance in Shelton. Larry used to say “Only the good die young." Well, he did die young; he was the youngest cousin; the others are over 80! Well done Larry, You finished your life well.

Celebration of Life Ceremony will be held at Mountain View Alliance Church, 314 East J Street, Shelton, WA at 02:00 PM on Saturday the 22nd of February of 2025.

There will be no graveside service except by invitation.

Instead of sending flowers, donations can be given to Gethsemane Ministries of Union, Washington.

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05:29 PM

Funerals are expensive, the cheapest headstone for a grave is over ten thousand dollars?