Around 1953, the year I was 7 years old, LE Krause came to visit us and stayed with the whole summer with our family. We soon learned he was a really sincere and hard-working young guy, the kind your parents would always talk about, saying “Son, why can’t you be more like LE?” In these days, people like that are few and far between.
There are a lot of stories about LE helping my dad do this, that, and the other thing. In those days, my dad was continuously rebuilding our house. Dad bought our house as a blobby-looking, cinder block structure, but when he finished, it was a sleek ranch house with a 360 degree porch and redwood siding.
My favorite LE story is about the first day we took him to our church, the Methodist Church of Cortland, Ohio.
We were usually one of the last families arriving, so we got a pew in one of the first two rows of the church opposite the choir, which was up front, to the right of the pastor. As we started the first hymn, I heard this booming voice beside me, and was amazed to hear someone who sounded like Tennesee Ernie Ford singing every note of the bass line out of the hymn book. This stunning performance continued during each of our usual three hymns until the service was completed.
At the end of the service, my brother Martin and I escaped from the church pretty quickly. When we looked around outside, we didn’t see any sign of LE. He was still inside the church surrounded by the minister and choir members.
When we got home, my mother explained that the choir had descended on LE like a mob as soon as the service was over. The choir director and the minister were begging LE to join the choir immediately, and asking my mother how long he was going to stay in Cortland. He stayed all summer and became the star of our choir until fall. It was pretty fun and inspiring.
Celebrating the Life of LE Krause 