Shirley Glynn (Lockwood) Larson

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Larson, Shirley Glynn Lockwood Singer, Artist Shirley Glynn Lockwood Larson, 91, died of cancer at her Bloomington home August 16, 2017. Born October 8, 1925, she was adopted by James Henry and Edna May Lockwood of Sioux Falls and Topeka. She attended Washburn University and the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, but left during World War II to work for the Manhattan Project in Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos. In 1947 Shirley married John B. Larson of Valley Springs, South Dakota. Their first son, Mark, was brain damaged by his baby vaccines. Shirley and John later founded the Sioux Falls chapter of the Association for Retarded Children, and Shirley was its first president. Shirley and John later gave birth to twins, Valerie and Vance. Shirley was a lifelong soloist of opera and oratorio, in Kansas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota, taught voice for over twenty years, directed several choruses, including her own Lockwood Singers in Bloomington, and also sang in popular stage productions. As a corollary to her singing career, Shirley was a visual artist, signing her paintings Glynn Larson. She was also among the founders of the Bloomington Center for the Arts. Shirley also had stints on the runway. In 1952 she won the title Mrs. South Dakota. In the late 1950s she directed the Nancy Taylor division of the Minnesota School of Business. From 1968 to 1971 she was the Director of the Barbizon School of Modeling in Hartford, Connecticut. And in 2004, she became Ms. Senior Minnesota. In 1996, after their almost 50 years of marriage, Shirley's husband John died of cancer in Bloomington. In 1998 she joined the musical group, The New Fogey Follies, where she met WCCO weatherman, Bud Kraehling. Shirley and Bud later married, and after leaving The Follies, sang in many venues as "The Weatherman and the Singing Lady." She also sang in several more singing groups and the production company, "Alive and Kicking." Bud Kraehling died in 2015. Shirley is survived by her son Mark Larson of Richfield, Minnesota; her daughter Valerie Haynes of Gilbertsville, New York; her granddaughters Athena Samuel Beavers of Jackson, Mississippi, and Dana Flora Ladd of Los Angeles; and her great grandson, James Jacob Wells of Jackson, Mississippi. A reception celebrating Shirley's life will be held at Fountain Lake in Bloomington on August 23rd, 1 p.m.

Published on August 20, 2017