Larry James was born Thursday, August 30, 1945 in Owen Sound to Stephen and Betty (Crawford) Duff. In time, Larry was to be big brother to a sister, Bonnie. Larry grew up in Invermay on a 50 acre farm where his father, Stephen, owned Duff Transport, shipping dairy products for Gaylea as well as livestock.
Larry, or Duffy as he was better known, attended S.S. #7 in Invermay and High School in Chesley. In fact, it was Larry’s grandfather who owned the bus line that transported the northern kids to high school in Chesley. It was in Grade 9 that Larry started dating the lovely Georgina Nicoll. He had invited her to a skating party and as they say, the rest is history. On March 20, 1964, The Rev. D. Archibald married the two lovebirds at the Tara Presbyterian manse.
An interesting story is told of the time Larry turned 16. His father gave him $10 to go into town and buy his books, padlock and gym shorts for school. Instead, Larry purchased a chauffeur’s licence for $7. Needing more money for his school supplies, Larry’s father suggested that he head to Toronto that night with a load of freight, as he now had the license to do so. And so, from the age of 16 until his retirement the night prior to turning 65, Larry drove truck. He started off earning $10 a week working for his Dad and went on to drive for G.A. Griens from 1964 – 1979. Larry then spent a few years at Maislin Transport before transitioning to Canpar/CP transport from 1984 until his retirement. Most of his trips were shorter in length, allowing him time to spend with his family. In fact, looking back, it felt as if that was all Larry did – spend time with family and work with little time for anything else.
In his youth, Larry enjoyed playing baseball and hockey and later joined the Chesley Legion, as his grandfather participated in both World Wars. He loved playing cards; cribbage, solo and euchre just to name a few and there was no better place to perfect this art that at the Legion with friends.
After their marriage, the couple resided on the 2nd of Elderslie where they welcomed baby Stephen in 1964, Tracey in 1965 and Tammy in 1970. They rented the Don Fortune farm for $20 a month and paid $50 a month in heating, imagine that! In 1971, Georgina and Larry bought a war time home in Chesley. The couple never lived beyond their means and always had the money in place prior to moving forward with any purchase. In 1994, they bought a 50 acre parcel of land outside of Chesley and in 2006 they moved into their custom built home on the property.
Larry was a life-long fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and took extreme pride in his farm property practising conservation. He had a few cows, fed the wildlife and enjoyed keeping the grounds in pristine fashion. In fact, he was so particular that he was often teased because he had a winter tractor and a summer tractor on their farm. He even had names for his tractors too! Kenny Kubota and Mabel the Massey, helped Larry with his chores on the farm. He always enjoyed mowing the lawn and entertaining friends and family with a bonfire. Aside from the farm, he always enjoyed going for drives and in recent years often frequented the Keady Market. This allowed Larry to socialize and reconnect with a lot of the farmers he worked with in his earlier years.
Larry favoured the colour black, especially for his pick-up trucks. His trucks were always well-kept and very clean. In terms of food, he had his favourites there too, as he enjoyed any type of pizza, Chinese food but a soft spot remained for Georgina’s home cooked meals. Due to the large amount of time he spent on the road, he watched little TV, mostly just hockey but music was a different story. He enjoyed music from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s most of all, especially Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” and Bob Dylan. Larry also had one very pronounced phobia, he was scared sh&%less of the dark! At a young age his mother spoke of the boggieman and those memories and fear remained with him for the remainder of his life. Can you ever remember Larry answering the door after dark?……. exactly.
Larry was also a very proud man, not only of his family but of many things he obtained and achieved over the years. Through that journey he liked to keep things though. Just ask Georgina and the kids, he never liked to part with things as he was confident he would need that item again down the road. At best, Larry kept pretty much to himself. He was a steady worker, honest and loved driving. Over all of his years of driving, Larry would have put on more than 3 million miles with no major accidents. It was nothing for Larry to spend three hours driving into Chesley for a cup of coffee.
In 2010, Georgina and Larry retired. They sold their farm property in September of 2016 and moved to Hanover. Sadly, it was only a few weeks ago that Larry was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away surrounded by his family on Thursday, December 1, 2016 in his 72nd year.
Beloved husband of Georgina. Cherished father of Stephen of Paisley, Tracey Vandervoort of Walkerton and Tammy (Jeff) Hooper of Durham. Larry will live on in the memories of his grandsons, Kalvin and Kyle Vandervoort, Jarrett and Darcy Hooper and his sister Bonnie (Robert) Mills of Owen Sound. Larry was predeceased by his parents, Stephen and Betty (Crawford) Duff.
Private family services will be held with inurnment to follow in Chesley Cemetery.
