RICEVILLE — Larry Donald Freerksen, 86, died September 21, 2026, at the Riceville Family Care and Therapy Center, or, as Larry himself might have put it, he “grabbed a harp.”
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, September 25, at Hindt-Hudek Funeral Home in Riceville, with Pastor Herman Bakker officiating. Visitation will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home. Larry will be laid to rest beside his wife, Elaine, at Wayne Cemetery in rural McIntire.
Larry was born February 17, 1940, in Lawn Hill, Iowa, to Donald and Lydia (Steinfeldt) Freerksen.
He attended Bailey School and graduated from McIntire High School in 1958.
Two years later, on June 11, 1960, Larry married Elaine Ann Hughes, beginning a partnership that would shape the next 65 years of his life.
The couple lived in the Riceville and LeRoy, Minnesota, areas before purchasing the family farm south of LeRoy in 1973.
Farming was far more than an occupation for Larry.
He believed that any job worth doing was worth doing correctly, whether the task involved livestock, machinery, crops or something that needed fixing around the farm. He brought the same care and attention to the people around him, generously giving both his time and resources when someone needed help.
Larry took seriously his responsibility to provide for his family, but that did not mean farm life had to be all work.
He was known for bringing humor into the everyday routine, often firing off jokes or one of the colorful sayings that became so distinctly his own that family members eventually gave them a name: “Lar-isms.”
Those expressions, along with Larry’s optimism and sense of humor, became part of the personality his family will remember.
He was also remarkably resourceful.
Larry loved spending time in his shop, and family members believed he might have missed his calling as an engineer. With a welder, a torch and some time to think, there were not many broken things he could not figure out how to repair or improve.
That creativity was matched by a strong work ethic that remained one of the defining traits of his life.
Larry cared deeply for his livestock, equipment and land, taking pride in maintaining what had been entrusted to him.
In later years, life slowed somewhat, but Larry still found pleasure in getting outside.
One of his favorite routines became daily Gator rides with Molly, his black German Shepherd. The pair made their rounds together, giving Larry another simple pleasure rooted in the land and outdoors he had spent so much of his life around.
Larry experienced significant loss during his lifetime.
His wife, Elaine, died on Christmas Day in 2025 after more than 65 years of marriage. He was also preceded in death by his parents; sister Donna Spencer; brothers Glenn and Richard “Dick” Freerksen; son Donald; daughter Vicki Hungerford; daughter-in-law Cindy Freerksen; and grandsons Kevin and Kyle.
He is survived by his sister, Shirley Clark; son-in-law Mike Hungerford; daughters Patty and Scott Priebe, Kelly and Paul Swinton, and Kristen and Jeffry Jones; son Jason and Heather Freerksen; 15 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Those wishing to read the family’s complete remembrance or share a message may visit the official obituary for Larry D. Freerksen through Hindt-Hudek Funeral Home.
Larry leaves behind the story of a Northern Iowa farm life built around responsibility, ingenuity and family — a man who believed in doing a job right, could fix nearly anything with the tools in his shop, found reasons to laugh even during a long day of work and left his family with an entire vocabulary of “Lar-isms” to remember him by.
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