Charles La Mar, Jr.

Charles Gregory La Mar, Jr., 97, passed away March 10, 2018, at the V.A. Hospital Community Living Center in Columbia, Mo. We’ll lovingly celebrate his life at 10:00am, Saturday, May 5, at  Johnson County Chapel & Memorial Gardens, 11200 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, Ks. Starting with visitation, the memorial service will include military honors, conclude with inurnment in the Gardens, and be followed by a gathering at the home of Sandy and Pat Duffy.

Columbia family members are his daughter Diane La Mar and her husband Dan Kuebler, grandson Benjamin Randolph and his wife Jena, and great grandchildren Miles and Sophie. Overland Park family members are his stepdaughter Sandra Duffy and her husband Pat Duffy, granddaughter Kelly Duffy Wolf and her husband Gregory Wolf, and great grandchildren Kennedy and Ethan, and granddaughter Patricia Benson and her husband Aaron Benson, and great grandchildren Ashley and Beau.

Other family members are his niece Judy Marron and her husband Hank, their children Liza, Mamie, and Rob, and their grandchildren Emily, Cody, Henry, Colleen, and Claudia; his nephew Steve Robinson and his wife Pat, and their children Sarah and Joe, and grandchildren Stuart and Alice; and Linda Gail Walker and her children, Max and Sam.

Charles was preceded in death by his parents, Mabel Yates La Mar and Charles Gregory La Mar, Sr.; sisters Nadine La Mar Robinson and Elden La Mar Neiman; and his first wife Virginia Maude White La Mar, and his second wife Jeanne Arletta Brown La Mar.

A life long resident of the Kansas City area, Charles moved to Columbia from his home in Overland Park, Ks. in 2009. He resided at Candlelight Lodge Assisted Living in Columbia until January 2018, when he entered hospice care at the HST V.A. Hospital Community Living Center.

Charles was born in Kansas City, Mo. and moved with the family to Belton, Mo when he was sixteen. He graduated from Belton High School, class of 1938, and became a union carpenter. After the Pearl Harbor attack he worked for a year in Hawaii as a civilian carpenter. He entered the Army in 1943, and served in England and France in the 501st Quartermaster Battalion as a clerk. He was honorably discharged in 1946 with the rank of Corporal.

He returned to Kansas City and worked as a carpenter and married Virginia White in 1948. They honeymooned in New Orleans and returned to live in a house he built. They had Diane in 1950. He worked as a carpenter in construction, and later formed La Mar Construction Co. with his father and they built filling stations all over the American West.

After Virginia’s death in 1970, he married Jeanne Brown in 1972, and moved to Overland Park, Ks. He embraced her grown daughter Sandy and her children as his own, becoming their beloved “Poppi”. He enjoyed traveling, hot cars, and television. Later he worked as a project manager for Kroh Brothers Construction.

He is fondly remembered at Candlelight Lodge as a gentleman who always wanted to help.

Another memorial service was held at on Sunday, April 15, 2018, at Heartland Cremation and Burial Society, 616 Jackson, in Columbia, Mo.