J. Larry Passmore

James “Larry” Passmore was born on May 21, 1929 to Harold and Bernice (Andrews) Passmore. He joined his siblings Elsie “Jean”, Howard and Elizabeth “Betty” in Farmington, near Choteau Montana where his parents were busy homesteading and farming alongside Harold’s parents and Brother Cecil. As the family grew, they decided to pick up and move to Pendroy where they rented some land, planning to save up enough to purchase their own farm as the children grew so they could again move and be closer to schools. Siblings Jessie then Gilbert soon joined the family, and the Great Depression hit. Luckily as farmers they were able to grow & preserve food in the garden and tend livestock to get by, but cash was hard to come by; a surgery for Howard's appendix was paid for with chickens. Dad’s parents and he never seemed to forget the lessons that this time period taught them, he was always conservative in his approaches to farming and life.

As times improved the family decided to pursue their dreams of owning their own farm, and so when Larry was 7 they crossed the Rockies and moved to the Flathead Valley to the farm that is still being managed by his son Kirk. Larry’s father continued to travel to Pendroy to work on farms that summer while they cleared the land, picked sticks, and built a farm and home in the Flathead. Always an animal lover, Dad told stories of his cat who would bring him gopher tails (he got paid for these!), his hunting dog Poochie and the many adventures had on the farm. His brother Howard joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor and his sister Jean went to Oregon to work in the munition’s depot. In March of 1944 the family home burned down and the family moved into the barn and a wooden trailer while they built the new house, with the limited supplies they could gather during wartime rationing.

As a young man, Larry continued to farm with his parents and bought some of his own land close by on what we called the Island, land surrounded by the Egan Slough. Larry used the timber from this land and had it planed to build his own house near his parents. Larry met Ruth Kao while she was a parish worker in Bethlehem Lutheran Church, and he soon became very regular in church attendance. At a church social, Larry bought Ruth’s picnic basket (which afforded eating with the maker of the basket), and before long they were engaged, were married on July 17th, 1953, and moved into their new home. Here they raised their 4 children, Mark, Kirk, Miriam and Pamela, and at one point the small rambler was added on to, to accommodate the growing family, not to mention the occasional calf that had to be brought in to warm up during cold Spring night births (something I was thrilled to wake up and find in the kitchen).

Larry was always looking to educate himself on the best way to do things and try new crops, in fact Mom had a custom bookshelf built for the dining room to hold his never ending supply of farm and ranch magazines as they were constantly overflowing the table tops. He was one of the first in the valley to distill mint oil, and I remember things like Fava Beans, lentils and canola long before these were common crops. His ability to adapt and try new things probably paid off as he remained solvent during times when others left the industry. In addition to developing the growing farm operations, he was 1958’s Outstanding farmer, a deacon at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, a member of the Creston volunteer fire department and even taught welding to adults at one point.

Mom and Dad shared a special love of music. Mom, being the church organist was always playing and we all sang along. We went to the musicals put on at the High School and the Bigfork Playhouse, and Dad continued to sing the showtunes, hymns and any other goofy song you could think of. He was an avid reader and could quote poems and often did, based on a single uttered word from someone that reminded him of something in a poem. Another deep love was Jelly Beans. There was a special glass jar on his dresser that remained perpetually filled. When Jelly Bellies became popular, he joined Ronald Regan in that addiction. The natural wonder of the Valley also afforded many family hikes, mostly in the Jewel Basin which was a very short drive from the Farm. A particularly memorable one was starting on our side of the Jewel, camping out and being picked up by Mark (who was the oldest and thus got stuck feeding the cows while the rest of us got to take an adventure) on the Hungry Horse side.

Always involved in their Church ministries, they decided in the early 80’s to host a foster child/orphan from Vietnam, and so Bihn Vu came to live on the farm with us. Bihn arrived with no English, but was a very good artist and could quickly sketch out his thoughts. He learned to love the farm and grew to call my parents “Mom and Dad”.

As the kids grew, Larry eventually backed away from cattle, which gave he and Ruth time in the winter months to do some travelling. They started by going on Rotary exchanges and made friends in Australia, and Tasmania, which became his next dog Taz’s namesake. Then the ministry called them again and they began their yearly sojourns to Tanzania. Africa and its people stole Larry’s heart and he so enjoyed giving his time, talents and fortune to work on a coffee plantation to support the Masaii Girl’s Lutheran Secondary School in Monduli, various water projects, and other crops for the school. He and Ruth went every January for several years, and after Ruth no longer could go Larry continued this mission so close to his heart. At one point two girls from Tanzania came back with them, Angela and Sirila, who lived with them while they helped with the college education needed to get their nursing degrees. Larry, who had thought of pursuing engineering out of high school but instead chose to become a partner with his dad on the farm, decided to join the girls at FVCC and we sure enjoyed the stories that came out of his Creative Writing class.

In the late 2000’s Larry started building a house between Creston and Bigfork on some property he had purchased which was closer to the farm his son Mark owns with his wife Cindy and son Miles. Unfortunately, Ruth died in 2010 before the house was completed.

Larry continued his farming and travels to Tanzania but was never meant to be a single man and was extremely lonely (not to mention eating things that were long expired). He was lucky enough to meet Shirley who lived in the Hamilton area, and after the course of many conversations and trips to visit each other, they were married on August 8, 2011. Larry and Shirley moved into the new house together and have made a wonderful home and gathering place, complete with ponds, fruit trees and a very large garden that just seemed to keep growing. During this stage of life, the farmer turned gardener grew many tons of produce that were either donated to the local food bank, given as gifts to fellow church members, or sold and the proceeds generated were donated to the girl’s school. He did make a few more trips to Tanzania, but the travel and bugs that he would end up with are much harder for a man in his late 80’s and the last couple ended with some harrowing trips home.

Shirley and Larry were active members at the Church at Creston and enjoyed many friendships in their community. The were able to take trips together to visit family, including Shirley’s daughter and family in Minnesota, her son's and families in the Billings area, his daughters in Boise and Washington.

Larry did cause a lot of excitement when crossing Hwy 35 from their house on the 4-wheeler to pick up the mail and was hit by a car. Surviving that, he was made to promise not to take the 4-wheeler to pick up the mail. So…a few years later he decided that taking some of his delicious corn across the Hwy for the friends at Creston Church to enjoy wasn’t picking up the mail…and was hit by a truck, this time ending up in the hospital for a very long time that even he wasn’t convinced he should recover from. He did, and was able to continue that garden for a few more years.

Larry lived long enough to celebrate the marriages of all of his Grandchildren, and although not able to travel anymore for the youngest 3, he has met and loved all of the spouses. He so enjoyed the great grandchildren that would stop by: Natasha, Lily and Lincoln Damen, Karli and Landon Passmore, Weldon Cole and Freya and Svea Carlson - giving them 4-wheeler rides (although not across the Highway!) and exploring the ponds and garden.

On July 17, 2024 he was welcomed into heaven, and had been surrounded by family and friends in his last weeks and days, with a family gathering at their home just two weeks before.

He is survived by his wife Shirley, sister Jessie Gestring, brother Gilbert (Janet) Passmore, sons Mark (Cindy) Passmore, Kirk (Jo) Passmore, daughters Miriam (Kirk) Ivey, Pamela (Mark) Rill, Grandchildren Michelle (Chad) Daman, Miles (Keri) Passmore, Rachel (Michael) Cole, Carissa (Scott) Carlson, Tana Rill (Tim Soderlund), and Laura (Andres) Preciado. He was preceded in death by his parents, first wife Ruth, sisters Jean Iden, Betty Louden and brother Howard Passmore.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Operation Bootstrap Africa, 5701 Kentucky Ave N, Ste 200, Minneapolis, MN 55428 or online at: Tribute to Larry Passmore We would like to also extend our thanks to Logan Hospice; they do an extremely difficult job and do it with such love and care.