Larry and Leila Houser Named Grand Marshals of Onion Days Parade

A well loved and respected local couple, Larry and Leila Houser were selected to ride as Grand Marshals during the 2013 Payson Onion Days Parade. 

One hundred entries are expected to ride in Monday's parade. Riding in the most honored seat in the lineup will be Larry and Leila Houser. The couple have been chosen as Grand Marshals for the 2013 Payson Onion Days Parade.

The honor came as a surprise to Larry and Leila. They were attending a Father’s Day celebration in Payson Canyon in June when their granddaughter, Nicole Kunzler, shared a nomination letter she had composed in their honor, which spoke heartfelt words on the couple's behalf. She wanted permission from them before submitting it to the Onion Days Celebration committee.

“It was such a neat tribute- it was awesome,” said Leila. “Before she got through [reading it], we were crying. So Larry says, ‘Yeah, go ahead [and submit it], if you want to'.”

“They’ll never pick us for it anyway,” Larry added, recalling his thoughts at the time. “When they called us, I’ve got to admit, I was quite surprised.”

But they were called. It arrived in the form of a mysterious invitation to have dinner with Mayor Rick Moore. Though they wondered why he wanted to dine with them, they agreed to join him. Once seated to share a meal with Payson's mayor, he told them they had been selected as Grand Marshals of the Onion Days Parade.

Having a deep connection to the community, the Housers were honored.

Payson has everything one needs, according to Larry, a lifelong Payson resident: Scenic mountains, wildlife for fishing and hunting, and no shortage of wonderful people that he and Leila have been proud to call friends.

Larry, whose parents are the late Don and Shirley Carter Houser, is a Paysonite through and through. “I was born and raised here and never left,” he said. “Worked here all my life and went to school here.”

While a student at Payson High School, he was employed at a nearby ranch. “Then I went into the grocery business,” he said. It is from his long career as a butcher in a local grocery market that a great many people came to know and respect him.

After forty-eight years in the business, Larry retired from Payson Market in 2010. “When I started, it was Roy’s Market, run by Roy Rogers- not the cowboy,” he said, smiling. “I worked for him, then worked for six different companies and never left that building.” The grocery store was located at 190 East 100 North, in the building now occupied by the NAPA Payson Auto Supply. “I stayed there all those years, until they built Payson Market, and then I went down there. I was there fifteen years before I retired.”

Leila is a Santaquin native, raised there throughout her youth by her parents, late James Eldon (“Chick”) and Wanda Jensen Greenhalgh. “I went to school there,” she said. “At that time, we graduated from junior high, and then went over to Payson High School.”

“When I was growing up, I worked at the canyon,” she said. “I would go down to Cedar Breaks and work there in the summertime.”

She also worked for her uncle, Roe Wilde, at his Payson Main Street bakery, Roe’s Bake Shoppe. “I’d walk down from the high school and then I’d clean up the bakery,” she said. “There were some ladies who worked in Forsey’s. I’d ride home with them, rather than ride the bus, because I didn’t have a car.

“[Larry’s] mom worked at the bakery and that’s how we met. She introduced me to him and I thought, ‘Hmm. He’s tall and good looking.’ He’d come and get me on my breaks and we’d go up to Milt’s [diner] up on the hill. I think my breaks were longer than ten minutes. More like a half hour, but that was okay, because his mother covered!”

Larry and Leila were married in the Manti LDS Temple in 1963- in fact, they will celebrate their golden anniversary just days after riding in the Payson Onion Days Parade, on September 6. After their marriage, Leila took time off to help raise the couple’s three daughters. She returned to work outside the home later, first in the local school lunch program, then back at Roe's Bake Shoppe, the bakery at Ream’s grocery store in Springville, and later as bus tech for Nebo School District, “I enjoyed that,” she said. “I had a lot of fun.”

She retired a year before Larry, in 2009. The Housers settled easily into a life well spent with children and grandchildren who reside close by.

“We enjoy going and following our grandkids with sports,” said Larry.

“Football, basketball,” Leila noted.

“We try to make it to all their events and we enjoy doing it,” Larry said. “It’s a lot of fun to go to all

their games and be with our grandchildren.”

Their children, Brenda Mangelson, JoAnn Kunzler (and the late Rick Kunzler), and Julie Christensen, reside in Payson with children—and a few grandchildren, of their own. Some of the Houser grandkids have attended and continue to study at their alma mater, Payson High, while some have gone to Salem Hills High School.

Their grandchildren are: Megan (Jordan) DeGraw, Karlie, Derek, and Kyle Mangelson; Jessica, Nicole, and Braden Kunzler; Krista (Chad) Moore, Kaitlyn (Dallen) Fiscus, Kenzie, and Dalton Christensen. They have two great-grandsons, Kason and Briggs DeGraw, and a great-granddaughter Moore expected in October.

The Housers have fond memories of Onion Days celebrations throughout years. “I remember when I was a younger boy,” Larry recalled, “I used to love to go down to the carnival and ride the rides. They had horse races on Labor Day and we’d do that. Then when we met, we’d go to the carnival and the band concerts.”

“We used to always come over to the parade,” said Leila. “If I had girlfriends who had cars, we’d make it over to the band concerts. And we’d come over to the carnival.” The latter marred by a sickly spin on the Tilt-A-Whirl, Leila has not liked carnival rides ever since. She prefers the band concert, the flower and art shows with the community’s talent on display.

“I’ve been here all my life, so it’s just part of my life,” Larry added.

Seated as Grand Marshals at this year's festivities, they will travel along Monday's parade route in an antique convertible. The ride will no doubt create new memories for the respected Payson couple to cherish, as they join the celebration among family and friends in a community they love.

“We really feel honored and appreciate it very much,” said Larry.

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