Man in Wheelchair Dies, Remembered for Waving to Cars
Posted/updated on: October 30, 2015 at 11:10 am
KILGORE — Kilgore residents and those just passing through have lost a familiar face. KETK reports drivers on the Charles Duvall Parkway could always count on a friendly wave from a man sitting in his wheelchair along the road. That man was Larry W. Grant, who suffered a stroke 18 years ago that left the right side of his body paralyzed. His sons say he rode lawn mowers, electric scooters, and a wheelchair to get around his community. “He wore the wheels off of everything he owned, that was almost a full time job for everybody here, just keepin’ him rollin’,” says Grant’s youngest son, Larry D. Grant.
Larry W. Grant rolled his wheelchair to the edge of the road every day to greet those passing by. Some he knew, some were complete strangers. “You could be at the house and know that Dad’s up here early in the morning, hearing the big trucks honking their horns and everything,” says his son John Grant.
After the elder Grant’s death last weekend, the family has realized the impact he made on so many. Flowers, hats, and hand-written letters fill the wheelchair he once occupied. Throughout the years, he has become a community celebrity. His son Larry was in Phoenix, Arizona, and found someone who knew his dad. “Somebody asked me, well where are you from? I tell ’em Kilgore, Texas, and he goes, ‘Man I like almost ran over an old man on a wheelchair on the loop,’ and I’m like, yep, that’s my dad,” says Larry D. Grant.
The elder Grant never told his sons why he chose to spend so much of his time this way, but they suspect he just wanted to brighten peoples’ days. “The most minuscule thing…Uh, you never know. Just a smile and a wave can touch somebody in such a way,” says John Grant. Grant died on what would have been his and his wife’s 51st wedding anniversary. After she died, he moved his wheelchair to be within view of her tombstone at the cemetery across the highway. His family members say they take comfort in knowing that he is reunited with the love of his life in heaven.
