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June 2023
JUNE 2023
Larson has seen the world,
OFTEN SINGING & DANCING Art Beat Pages 5-8
ROBIN FISH / ENTERPRISE
"People don't know me without my hat," says Jim Larson, pictured in front of a wall of Western-style art at the home he built by hand in rural Nevis. By Robin Fish Park Rapids Enterprise Jim Larson of rural Nevis has seen a lot in just 89 years of life. “I’ve been a lot of places,” he said. “I’ve been in all 50 states, I don’t know how many times, and I think 30-some countries.” Larson retired from a 20-year career in the Air Force in 1974, then bought the Green Valley Resort south of Nevis and retired again 21 years later. During that time and in the 18 years since, he has seen and done a
lot – from building a house by hand and collecting classic cars to rubbing elbows with country music legends and recording 42 CDs of his own karaoke singing, plus music videos. Once you sit down to reminisce with him, you’re in for a long session of storytelling and show-and-tell, with lots of infectious grins and laughs. Larson and partner Adele Nelson have been together since 2000. “We sang all over,” he said. “We’ve made three trips to Alaska in a motorhome. We sang in all the
provinces of Canada and in just about every state in the United States, and a lot of countries.” He takes a lot of his inspiration from country music. He’s seen many of classic country’s greats perform, and mixed with some of them socially. A good friend of his played guitar with country singer Del Reeves. In the 1960s, while competing with the Air Force pistol team, he once sat at a banquet next to “Hee Haw” star Minnie Pearl. “We talked all night, and I laughed so hard,” he says.
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During a visit to Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., he mistook Elvis Presley’s dad for a member of staff. He told a man sitting at his table in a bar that he looked like Conway Twitty, and the man said, “Well, he’s my uncle.” Later he met Twitty’s son and Johnny Cash’s brother at the same time. The latter told him a story about how the Man in Black played a whole show while too drunk to stand up, and nobody knew the difference.
LARSON: Page 2