Southern Gospel Music Songwriter, Larry Lane Chilton Passes Away - written 12/4/00 |
Southern Gospel Music Songwriter, Larry Lane Chilton (LLC), 54 passed away
a few minutes after midnight (12/3/00) at his home in Columbus, MS, after a long battle
with cancer with all of his family surrounding him. Larry authored such songs as
"When It's Time To Say Goodbye" (recorded by Tony Gore & Majesty), "Let
The First One Be Me (recorded by The Wilburns), Heartbeat Away (recorded by The Stanley's,
The Praisers, and The Maharreys), and many others. Larry or better known as LLC
to the SGM/Christian chatroom, made many many friends almost immediately upon his first
visit to the chatroom some 3 years ago. Although his health did not allow him to get
online very much over the past year or so, he kept up with many of those chatters with
whom he had become close friends with. He even managed to get his wife use to the computer
so she could find out for him about different ones he wanted to inquire about. His ever
constant humor, love and concern for others, as well as his wonderful songwriting
abilities will live on in our minds and our hearts forever. He was truly a friend to all
who knew and loved him. It was just in September at the NQC 2000, we all got to see and
spend some time with LLC and his wife Lynn. Biography - Larry was born in a small Mississippi town called Yazoo City on March 20, 1946. This small town with a population of about 5,000 people was known as the "Gateway to the Delta" since half of it was in the hills and half was in the delta. For those of you who don't know, the Mississippi Delta is flat - So flat in fact that in one Mississippi delta town, a man piled up a mound of dirt in his backyard so that his kids would know what a hill looked like. He grew up a typical Mississippi boy, hunting and fishing in the woods and wetlands surrounding Yazoo City, playing football and baseball, and going to church on Sundays. He attended First Baptist Church in Yazoo City and grew up listening to the stories of hometown comic Jerry Clower. When he was 10 years old, Larry accepted Jesus at an Angel Martinez revival that was held at the football stadium. After high school, he attended Holmes Jr. College on a football scholarship where he majored in pre-business (engineering). After a mysterious illness (they still don't know what it was) Larry had to drop out of college. He worked at Mississippi Chemical for a short time before joining the United States Navy. While stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station, Larry wowed and wooed his future wife, Lynn Louise Ambroz of Milwaukee, Wisconsin who was a nursing student. He says he put 15,000 miles on his car in 9 months traveling between Great Lakes and Milwaukee. It was only a 70 mile trip! After his time at Great Lakes, he was transferred to the Mediterranean aboard the U.S.S. Little Rock. During his time on the U.S.S. Little Rock, a missile cruiser, he traveled to Greece, Tunisia, Morocco, Monte Carlo, Cypress, Yugoslavia, Malta, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, England, Scotland, Cuba, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. In the middle of all of his travels, he found time to come back to Milwaukee, and married Lynn who had just graduated from Marquette University with a major in nursing. Larry's family had always had nurses in that his mother was a nurse, several aunts were nurses, and his brother married a nurse so Lynn fit right in the family. Larry has always felt that God had a hand in him meeting Lynn who has been his wife for 27 years now. While Larry's ship was in Newport, R.I., his oldest son Scott was born on a cold February morning in a Naval Hospital on Goat Island. The family remained in Rhode Island for 6 months before returning to Mississippi and Larry returned to college. The University of Mississippi, (the only University in Mississippi according to Larry) was home for the next 2 years. While at "Ole Miss" Larry pursed a degree in business and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Larry and family moved to Pearl, Mississippi, where his youngest son, Michael, was born. During the next 15 years, Larry worked for the government. (Don't tell anybody but he worked for the Internal Revenue Service). During this time he lived in Jackson, Hattiesburg and Columbus, Mississippi. Due to an illness called sleep apnea, he was forced to retire. During this time of retirement, Larry helped form a local gospel singing group called the Gospel Disciples from the members of his church, Canaan Baptist. Larry had always been interested in writing, but during this time period he began writing songs for the Gospel Disciples. A few years later, he became discouraged and was about ready to quit writing songs. God lead him to a workshop for song writers that he heard about on the local gospel station. It was there that he met two gentlemen that influenced his writing career. The first was Larry Petree, a prolific southern gospel song writer, and the second was Ray Lewis of Eddie Crook Company. "If I ever write a number one song, there are two people that I must thank," says Larry. "First of all, I would thank Larry Petree for telling me how good I write. Secondly, I would thank Ray Lewis for telling how bad I was."
He leaves his wife of 30 years, Lynn Chilton of Columbus, two sons, Scott Chilton of Jackson, MS, and Michael Chilton of Columbus; daughter-in-law, Samantha Chilton of Jackson, MS; one sister, Debbie Hall; one brother, Sonny Chilton; and aunt Gladys Harrison. Due to Lynn having her family coming in from Milwaukee, WI, the visitation will be on Thursday evening at 5:00 PM at Memorial Funeral Home in Columbus, MS. The funeral service will be on Friday at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, at 10:30 AM with the burial at Mt. Vernon Cemetery. Donations are to be sent to: ECI Fund Please keep Larry's family in your prayers. God Bless, Marilyn Ward |
