Lawrence Palmer "Larry" Brown experienced a variety of ups and downs during his life. He was expelled from school, married and divorced his first wife twice, survived a gas attack during World War I, worked in the film industry, and married a Hollywood celebrity.
Larry was successful in striking his own winding course through the world, despite the fact that he was trying to escape the shadows cast by his famous parents.
Larry was born on August 30, 1887, in Margaret's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, to a mother named Margaret.
When the family relocated from Leadville to Denver in 1894, Larry and his sister Helen enrolled in Sacred Heart College, a prestigious Catholic institution. Larry and Helen graduated in 1902. His parents then sent him to a boarding school.
Photograph of the FamilyThe Brown Family's Last International Trip as a Family took place in 1906. Traveled on the Lusitania during its first year of service across the Atlantic.
Phillips Exeter Academy, a prep school in Pennsylvania, is a good example. J.J. and Margaret hoped he would attend Yale, while Larry hoped he would go the Colorado School of Mines, which was regarded as one of the nation's best mining colleges at the time.
Both sets of plans were thrown off course when several of Larry's travelling companions "went on a spree" on the way back to school after the holiday season ended. Eventually, the entire group was ejected from the school.
When Larry returned to Denver and informed his father, the two were embroiled in an argument that resulted in Larry being arrested and spending the night in jail.
When asked about his feelings, Larry responded by telling a reporter "My, but I regret this affair." I can't bear the thought of having to face my mum.
I have a special affection for her and her sister, and I believe they will bear the brunt of the consequences of what has happened” (Iversen, 157).
The fact that Larry married Eileen Horton, a Kansas City socialite, rather than returning to school, only added to his father's dissatisfaction with his decision.
While Margaret had a soft spot for Eileen, she and J.J. felt that Larry should wait until he had established himself before starting a family with her.
The ceremony for the marriage of Larry and Eileen took place in Kansas City on January 11, 1911, and neither J.J. nor Margaret were in attendance.
Larry was disinherited from the family fortune by J.J., who was enraged by his son's disobedience.
Following a honeymoon in Leadville, Larry and Eileen relocated to Victor, Colorado, where he took a job as a day miner, and they have been there ever since.
In November 1911, their son Lawrence Palmer, Jr., affectionately known as "Pat," was born. When it comes to creating a sensational story, the Denver press did not disappoint.
The situation of the family was described with the headline "Rich Man's Son Toils in Mine to Feed Wife and Baby."
Eileen hoped that Larry would give up mining for the sake of his health and safety, and with her encouragement, he began taking correspondence courses in business administration and management.
Meanwhile, J.J., inspired by Larry's determination to forge his own path in life, began sending small monthly instalments from his trust fund to Larry.
Larry was still struggling to find a stable job, and the family was constantly on the move. In 1913, the couple moved to California, where they had their second child, Eileen Elizabeth "Betty" Brown.
By 1915, however, the stress of frequent relocations and uncertain employment had caused Eileen and Larry to separate and divorce.
Larry made his way back to Colorado and eventually enrolled at the School of Mines there.
Larry decided to enlist when the United States entered World War I in 1917, and he did so very quickly.
Larry in uniformLarry Brown served during World War I.
He was discovered to be a good fit for military life. While training at Fort Sheridan, he "attracted notice for his skill in military manners and zeal," according to the report (Iversen, 213).
He rose through the ranks to become a captain in the 117th Infantry and was assigned to the American Expeditionary Force in France. He and Eileen remarried just a few days before he set sail for Europe.
While serving in France, Larry maintained his excitement for the service, but he also had to deal with the hardships of wartime living. From the battlefields of Ypres, he wrote his mother, saying, "I am working harder than I have ever worked in my life, yet at the same time I am enjoying it all more than I have ever enjoyed anything.
" Despite this, he acknowledged that he "becomes very lonely at times" (Iversen, 214). Larry was exposed to mustard gas a month later, when fighting near the German fortifications of the Hindenburg line.
After two months in the hospital, he was able to make a full recovery, but his active duty career was done.
He received a decoration for his contribution to the breaking of the Hindenburg line, and he was honourably dismissed from the army in January 1919.
When J.J. died in 1922, a lengthy and violent legal battle erupted between Margaret and her two children over how the estate should be divided. Margaret eventually won the case.
In 1926, a settlement was reached that put $100,000 in trust for Margaret and another $100,000 in trust for the children. Larry and Eileen were divorced for the second time not long after that.
Larry eventually made his way back to California, where he worked as a general manager for the John Gorman Pictures studio during the golden period of silent filmmaking.
He met and fell in love with Hollywood actress Mildred Gregory, and the two were married on November 17, 1926, in Beverly Hills, California.
Despite the fact that his relationship with his mother had soured as a result of the inheritance dispute, when Margaret passed away in 1932, Larry requested that the funeral be postponed so that he could be present.
After relocating to Leadville in 1935, he became a member of the Leadville Historical Association's board of directors, and later rose to the position of Director of the Colorado Mining Association.
Over the course of his later years, he attempted to prevent the distortions of his mother's image that were being generated by Hollywood and the media, but he was generally unsuccessful.
Larry died of pneumonia in 1949, at the age of 61, and was survived by his wife and two children. A collection of family materials was bequeathed to the Colorado Historical Society, with the stipulation that they not be opened for at least 25 years after he had passed away.
It wasn't until 1978 that the Brown family's collection was eventually opened and sorted, and it was this that Larry was able to realise his goal of mending the family's legacy, decades after his death.
Jacob Wipf, a student intern in the field of education, wrote this piece.
Bibliography:
Kristen Iversen is the author of this work. Molly Brown: Untangling the Myths of Her Life Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado, 1999.
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