Bonham, Texas -- Larry Carlisle Bursell was born in Littlefield, Texas to Samuel Lee Clay and Ida Jewel (Stump) Bursell on September 27, 1938.

His childhood years were spent dividing time in California, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, but somehow, always seeming to come back to Texas, finally attending high school here in Bonham.

At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he trained and served as an aircraft mechanic.  During his military service, Larry happened to meet a Bonham girl named Nelda Gay Manning, the sister of one of his local running buddies.  She was working as a waitress serving burgers and cokes at Parson’s Grocery on the north side of the town square.  She might have been impressed by his Indian motorcycle or maybe attracted by his winning smile. 

For whatever reason, she agreed to spend a little time on a date with him.  And then she agreed to do it again.  And again.  Then she agreed to accept his proposal of marriage.  The two of them had found the love of their lives and they were married in June of 1959.  Their marriage and their devotion to one another would survive through life’s challenges and celebrations for next 65 years.

After completing his military service, Larry hired on with the General Telephone and Electronics Company (GTE), which later came to be known as Verizon.  Assigned as a member of an “unlocated crew”, Larry, Nelda and baby boy Larry Don traveled much of the southwest in an aluminum trailer house, working at whatever location the phone company decided to send the crew to next.  But somehow, always seeming to come back around to Texas.

In the early 1970s, Larry and Nelda returned to Bonham, building their home out north of town on Highway 78 and settling in to raise Larry Don and daughter Treacia Renee.

Larry turned that job with the phone company into a 30-year career.  Then, he “retired” to start his own local Telephone Service Company, providing and installing telecommunications systems to private, commercial and local government customers.

In addition to his electronics knowledge, Larry had a talent for being what used to be called a “shade tree mechanic”.  No one knows the total number of vehicles he repaired, maintained and just kept running down the roads for his kids and then his grandkids.

Then, eventually came the day when doctors told Larry that he had a life expectancy of only six months.  With the streak of hard-headed stubbornness that’s been known to run in the family, he did his absolute best to prove the doctors wrong, with Nelda at his side every step of the way.  He did this by first simply refusing to lay down without a fight and, then, by setting himself goals on the calendar to make it to the next holiday, or the next family birthday, or the next anniversary.  Now, well over a year after the doctors’ predictions, after 86 strong years, this last Wednesday, March 12. 2025 Larry passed from this world into the welcoming embrace of his Saviour.

Larry was preceded in death by his parents, Clay and Jewel, by his sister Cordelia Baugh, and by his great-granddaughter Loki Wren Durham.

Larry is survived by his wife Nelda, by his son Larry Don and Sally Bursell and his daughter Treacia Renee (Trish) Stewart and Orenthal (Rent) Brown, by his grandchildren Heather Leanne and Gage Mosley, Angela Deanne and Mickey Durham, Samuel Travis and Cinnamon Bursell, Cor Daniel and Bonnie Kay (BK) Bursell, John Dylan and Natalie Stewart, and Michelle Elizabeth and Brendan Batchelder, and by his great-grandchildren Chloe Faye, Zoey Ann, Monroe Kennedy, Jacob Dylan, Zachary Benson, Cor Truitt, Marley Paige, Roxanne Presley, Brodie Cash, Theodore Don, Zailey Mae, Orion Carlisle, Calliope Kay and Payton Lee, and by his sister Patricia Baugh. 

Family visitation will be held at Cooper-Sorrels Funeral Home in Bonham on Friday evening, March 14, 2025 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Funeral services will be held at Cooper-Sorrels on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 2:00 p.m., with internment following immediately after at Arledge Ridge Cemetery.

Online condolences and registry can be made at www.coopersorrells.com