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To: Members of Detroit Lodge No. 7 Captain Lawrence W. Huston, who had celebrated his 100th birthday last October, passed away on Thursday, April 16, 2009 in Lafayette, Louisiana where he had been residing for the past several years. Captain Huston became a member of Detroit Lodge No. 7 on January 26, 1982, and was assigned pennant number 10341. Born in Los Angeles in 1908, and raised in the Southeastern Iowa town of Ottumwa, Capt. Huston attended Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. His sailing career began in 1929, when, during summer vacation from college, he shipped as a deckhand aboard the S/S Western States, operated by the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company. Over the years, he worked on all of the sidewheelers in the D&C line, with the exception of the City of Detroit III. In 1940 & 1941, Capt. Huston attended the 11th class at the Fort Trumbull Maritime Officers Training School at New London, Connecticut. It was there that he received his first license, for Great Lakes Mate & 3rd Mate Ocean. In 1949, while sailing as 1st Mate on the S/S Eastern States, he left D&C to sail as Captain for the Wabash Railroad's Detroit River Carferry Fleet, which was later operated by the Norfolk-Western Railroad. He worked on all three of the Wabash vessels: the Detroit, Manitowoc, and the Windsor. When the carferries were replaced by a tug & barge operation, Capt. Huston moved to the tugs R.G. Cassidy and F.A. Johnson. He retired from the Detroit River carferries in 1975. Although the majority of Capt. Huston's career was with the D&C Navigation Company and the Detroit River rail car ferries, he did serve on other vessels in both licensed and unlicensed capacities. These vessels include the Morris S. Tremaine, the sandsucker Nassau, the tanker Oscar D. Bennett of the Pan American Petroleum & Transport Co., the tanker Joseph M. Cudahy of the Sinclair fleet, the President Harding and Manhattan, both operated by U.S. Lines, the Rensselaer of the Pittsburgh Steamship Co. Fleet, and Nicholson Steamship's Sultana. Captain Huston is predeceased by both his first and second wives. He met his first wife, Lois, of Rome, Georgia, while attending Maryville College, and they married in 1930. Lois passed away in February of 1981. In August 1985, he married another friend from Maryville college, Mary Fant, of Athens, Georgia. They later relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana. Capt. Huston is survived by his son, William Huston of Detroit, two nieces and one nephew. There will be no visitation or funeral. Private burial will take place at 2:00 PM Monday, April 20, 2009 at the Roseland Park Cemetery in Berkley, Michigan. If a memorial service is planned at a later date, the lodge membership will be notified. The newspaper death notice and on-line guest book can be
found
at the following link: Fraternally, Paul M. Jagenow
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