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L. Parks Sanford
Born in the south, his young life would take a bizarre turn at the age of three. His mother and father divorced and he would be transplanted to a small town in upstate Ohio. On one visit to his mot...view moreBorn in the south, his young life would take a bizarre turn at the age of three. His mother and father divorced and he would be transplanted to a small town in upstate Ohio. On one visit to his mother's favorite cocktail lounge, his life took a dramatic turn. "Would you please watch my little boy while I go to the restroom," his mother asked the lady sitting next to her. The lady politely responded that she would. His mother never would return. The lady who had agreed to watch him took him home so that he would be safe and, subsequently, kept him for two weeks hoping the mother would return to pick him up or at least contact her. She never would. After exhausting all attempts to locate her, she was forced to call the local children's orphanage. Larry, he was called, was then to spend the next few years of his life as a resident of Green Acres Orphanage until the age of nearly nine.Things would change after spending five years in the orphanage, when a couple from a well known family in a town not far away would visit looking for a child to adopt. They would pick Larry and after a two month trial period they made arrangements for permanent adoption procedures to begin. He would become, Lawrence Parks Sanford, dropping his former middle name of Reed, and claiming one that was a family name from his adoptive mother's side.Larry grew up happy in this town; Elyria, the very town where he had been abandoned on the bar stool.His adoptive father would become mayor. He attended the local high school, excelling in athletics, which afforded him the opportunities to attend a number of colleges on a baseball scholarship or the chances to try out for Baltimore or Detroit's professional baseball teams. Being somewhat rebellious, due to strife and insecurity as a very young boy, he turned his back on his family and those golden opportunities, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps the day after graduation. Larry would then go on to serve with the Marines in Chu Lai, Viet Nam 1964-1966 and a total of 4 years plus.Larry's past has served as guideline and inspiration for his writings today. He had an opportunity to meet both his birth parents when he was a young man and was able to express his forgiveness for their errors in judgement. They have both since passed therefore he still knows very little of his family's history. He married Susan Dusek of Bay Village, Ohio over 35 years ago. They have a son, Ian, who attends the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. Larry resides now and for the past 33 years in Rock Hill, South Carolina. After many years as a successful landscape designer and contractor, he retired to pursue his passion of writing and creating wonders and tales for children and young adults; writing under the pen name of, L.Parks Sanford.view less