Sr. Lloyd Harline

Lloyd Arnold Harline, Sr., passed away on August 30 due to complications from multiple myeloma cancer and a serious fall. Born in South Gate, CA to Horace and Lorine (Krebs) Harline, "Lube" grew up in nearby Walteria with six siblings, in a home built by their construction-working father. The Depression gave Lloyd plenty of chances to work, but he also found time to play at rocky Walteria playground, where the basketball hoop was an old 14-inch hubcap instead of 18-inch rim. His hours of practice on that helped him become a deadeye shooter, along with his boyhood friend Bill Sharman, future NBA Hall of Famer, who later said that Lloyd was the only fellow who could outshoot him. Lloyd watched every sort of game he could, followed stars like Dizzy Dean and Bronco Nagurski in the LA Examiner, and played tennis and basketball at Narbonne High, where he was named to the All Los Angeles City second team in basketball. He graduated in 1945 in the California Scholarship Federation honor club, paid for his own piano lessons, and as a boy earned loose change singing songs for visiting LDS Church leaders hosted by his dad, including Heber J. Grant. With World War II still underway, Lloyd entered the Maritime Service as a radio operator. But the war ended in August, so he was drafted into the Army and sent to Korea as part of the occupation forces, in early 1946. Before leaving, he married Naomi Baleme, with whom he would have two children; upon returning the next year, he enrolled at Pepperdine College on the GI Bill, where he played two years of basketball and in 1951 earned a degree in Accounting. The next few years were tumultuous, as he underwent a divorce, raised his young kids, and tried to find a career-despite his gifts at quantifying, Accounting was not for him: he wanted to "work with people." He tried merchandising at JC Penney, managing at Foster's Freeze, and playground-directing, including in Walteria, where his skills at organizing kids and making them feel involved would serve him well in his eventual vocation as educator. In 1954, he enrolled at USC in a Ford Foundation program to develop teachers, and started teaching his first elementary-school class. He also met Kay Swingle, while singing in the Hollywood Bowl in a huge LDS Singles Choir. They were married in 1955 in the St. George LDS temple, and befitting his desire to work with lots of people he and Kay eventually added six more children to the family. While still teaching, Lloyd earned a Master's Degree from USC in education and an administrative credential. He took his first job as principal in 1961, in the San Joaquin Valley, working for 28 years at Temperance-Kutner and Mickey Cox elementary schools, both in Clovis. Famously, he knew the names of every student, went over every report card every term, played the piano for the choir, made sure everyone got on the right bus every day, and more. Lloyd retired in 1989, after a week of festivities organized by his teachers, who gave him a lot of loving speeches and a trip to Hawaii. With their children scattered around the country, Lloyd and Kay moved in 1992 to Orem, Utah, near which almost all of their 32 grandchildren were just starting to attend college. He and Kay hosted Waffle Sunday weekly, at Lloyd's Diner, where kids and grandkids and friends were served as many waffles and chocolate-banana shakes as they wanted, along with a lot of good humor and music that he only partly required you to listen to. Lloyd always enjoyed traveling with, and to see, family-camping at just about every Park in the west, then visiting all over the US and Europe, including in Sweden, where at 80 he became friends with his distant cousins and played his music for them. Inspired by his uncle, the composer Leigh Harline, Lloyd wrote more than 1,000 songs, including one for every family member. He also loved singing in choirs, gardening, chess, and watching his kids and grandkids perform-mentioning on the slightest pretext his grandson "the all-American tight end" Jonny, and saying after any good play, "my genes are coming through!" He also served willingly in the LDS Church, in countless positions, including bishop, but most memorable was how he volunteered to help anyone, on any project, as just like his parents he was a tireless worker. He will be sorely missed by his wife Kay; his children Lloyd (Nancy Boice), Karen (Sherm Sowby), Craig (Paula Kelly), Vicki (Terry Jennings), David (Kathryn Sargent), Kathryn (Troy Richey), Steven (Cindy Christensen), and Donald (Benita Chitty); his 32 grandchildren and many great-granchildren; his remaining siblings Leigh (Betty) and Carolyn (David Hanneman); and friends and neighbors. Preceded in death by siblings Darrell, Doug, Grant, and Betty. He was right that he was born to interact with lots of people, of all ages, as he was one of the best-hearted people you could ever know. A viewing will be held at Sundberg-Olpin mortuary on Friday, September 5, 6:30-8:30 pm, with funeral services on Saturday, September 6, at 10 am, at the LDS chapel on 200 North 1051 East in Orem; a second viewing will be held one hour prior to the service.

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