Roland Daniel Larson (Danny), 69, of Spring Valley, passed away peacefully in his sleep on July 4, 2023. He was born in Baldwin, Wis. on Dec. 18, 1953, the son of Kenneth O. and Cordella H. (Traynor) Larson. On his 18th birthday, he married the love of his life, Rita M. Rightman. Together they welcomed three children, Daniel, Johnathan, and Lisa. They moved around as a young couple residing in North Carolina, Indiana, and Minnesota. While living in Indiana, Roland’s half-brother, Jim introduced him to the trade of roofing. In 1980, Roland and family moved back to Spring Valley where he would start Larson’s Roofing Company. Roland always had a love for farming and raised cattle for many years alongside his roofing business. In 1992, Roland and Rita bought a small dairy farm. Roland continued to roof with his sons, milk cows and grow crops until Rita got sick in 2003. They sold the dairy cows but remained on the farm with the crops and some beef cattle.
After Rita passed in 2004, he worked harder than ever to try to overcome his loneliness, but in 2014 he accidently posted his picture to a Mormon dating website (he was not Mormon) and caught the attention of Elena Roberts. Roland was immediately in love with Elena’s hard-working drive and extreme kindness. They got married after nearly 10 years of companionship on Dec. 7, 2022.
Many may remember Roland as an extremely hard-working man that always had a Pepsi in hand. His kids thought it was quite comical that even though he was a dairy farmer, they had never seen him drink a glass of milk or eat a piece of cheese. He was the pickiest eater on the planet, but family dinners were easy as long as we had meat and potatoes! Roland was not great at relaxing, but he did manage to take a few vacations over the years and Laughlin, Nev. was a favorite. He enjoyed watching his grandchildren play football over the years and was always ready to cheer on the Packers.
Roland retired from roofing for good in 2016 and in September 2021 he sold his farms and was “officially” retired. It was one of the hardest things he had ever done to sell his life’s work, but his body would simply not allow him to continue to work so hard.
Roland is survived by his wife, Elena Larson, three children: Daniel (Anne) Larson, Johnathan (Leanna) Larson, and Lisa (Nathan) Nelson; two stepchildren: Jenny (John) Ducheneaux and Daniel Roberts; nine grandchildren: Chelsea, Tyler, Bailey, and Bentley Larson; Devin, Zaccary, and Gaige Larson; Rhyan and Jake Nelson; three great-crandchildren Beau, OakLynn and Peyton; and seven step-grandchildren: Travis, David, Isaiah, Josh and Jaiden, Isaiah, Pazlin; sister Linda (Jack) Crandall, brother Kenny (Kathy) Larson, sister-in-law Billie Spence along with many in-laws, nieces and nephews.
Roland is preceded in death by his wife Rita, his parents Kenneth and Della and in-laws Billie and Donna Rightman, his brother Larry, his three half-brothers, Jim, Frank, and David Spence, his sister-in-law Sharon.
A Celebration of Life will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, July 18.
Roland’s family would like to especially thank his hospice nurse and staff for all their help and care over the past year. Miranda, Carla, Kristin, Roxy, Cassie and Pastor Jed were the best.
Keehr Funeral Home, Spring Valley handled arrangements.
