Francis "Frank" Carl Larvie, 91, of Nampa, Idaho, passed away on August 5, 2025 in the town of Burke, Virginia. He was a Rosebud Sioux, a hard-rock miner, a sailor, a business executive, a prospector, a husband to his wife Lavonne, a father to five children, and a grandfather to five grandsons.

Frank was born into the Rosebud Sioux Tribe at St. Francis, South Dakota to Alex and Alta Irene (Wilson) Larvie on September 25, 1933, the sixth of seven children. Just weeks before he died, Frank still recalled how his mother would respectfully serve a dinner plate to an octagenarian Indian they called "Ol' Sore-eyes," who would sit cross-legged on the kitchen floor eating with his fingers. Ol' Sore-eyes had fought against the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn. This entitled him to a meal for life anywhere on "the rez." Frank's life experiences thus spanned from the Little Bighorn to the nuclear age.

A rodeo bronc-rider through the 1920s, Frank's father raised cattle under the A-Lazy-L brand on his tribal allotment near Wood, South Dakota until a blight wiped out his livestock. In need of "hard cash" Alta and Alex moved the family to Butte, Montana in 1943, while their two eldest boys, Arthur and David, served in the Pacific Theater. Frank moved with them. The new house stood on Bennett St. in Walkerville. Frank attended elementary school in Butte, and he sold newspapers for ten cents each. On holidays, he sold cigars, getting as much as $1 apiece from the Irish miners on St. Patrick's day. Together with his friend Pat Bowler, they "wrestled boxes" from grocers to sell back to shoppers who bought them to carry their purchases home. Frank attended Butte High, mostly out of interest in shop classes. He received passing grades but managed only one shop course in woodworking. Throughout high school, he made good money setting pins in bowling alleys, again with Pat Bowler. His senior year, Frank signed onto a hay crew in the Big Hole Valley south of Butte near Wisdom, Montana. Many of the other ranch hands were WW II combat veterans who would sit and chat about the war among themselves, piecing together battles and remembering their friends. They moved with the hay season from bunkhouse to bunkhouse. Frank stayed on in the Big Hole Valley until enlisting in the Navy in 1953, "so he could send money back home to mom."

When he entered the Navy, all four of his older brothers were already in uniform. Frank gained proficiency in semaphores and Morse code. While his aircraft carrier, the Oriskany, was on patrol launching aircraft off the coast of Korea, he was often summoned to the bridge to read out the blinker lamps for junior officers who somehow hadn't learned Morse. This was the same Oriskany featured in the movie "Bridges at Toko-ri." Standing watch one cold night, he looked out over the moonlit waves and spotted the periscope of one of the fleet submarines. It dawned on him that the men in those boats must be comfortably warm. As soon as he could, Frank requested transfer to the submarine service, discovering better pay too. He qualified as a submariner and served the remainder of his enlistment on the WW II Gato and Tench-class diesel-electric boats Archerfish and Tirante—both recognized at the Cold War Submarine Memorial in Charleston, SC. Frank met Marlene Deitrich early one Sunday morning in the French Riviera. She just walked down a paved pedestrian walkway to where Frank's boat was moored and stopped to speak to "sailor Frank" manning the gangplank as a detail of sailors in whites on deck raised the colors. He earned the Korean Service, China Service, and NATO Service medals. Of his 4 years, 11 months and 27 days in the Navy, he spent four years eight months at sea.

Frank returned to Butte expecting to rustle a job in the mines, but his sister Mary convinced him not to waste his G.I. Bill, so he enrolled at the Montana School of Mines (Montana Tech). He passed the entrance exam by such a narrow margin one professor advised him to save himself the trouble of washing out and just to quit. Instead, Frank became even more determined. He graduated in 1962 and landed a job as shift boss in the Leonard. He married Ann Elizabeth "Nancy" Kelly in 1963. Frank and Nancy had two children, John and Veronica, before leaving Butte for Missoula, where Frank received an MBA from the University of Montana. He worked in Kellog, Idaho, and then the whole family relocated to Silver City, New Mexico. There, they had two more children, Mykol (né Michael) and Sean Patrick. They later moved to Eureka, Utah, where they had their last child, Kelly Anne. Frank then accepted a position sinking a shaft in a uranium mining operation for Exxon, which relocated the family to company headquarters in Houston and then to Casper, Wyoming. In Casper, Nancy and Frank divorced.

Now single, Frank decided it would be a good time for international work, so in 1975 he signed on for two years as mine superintendent in Tlemcen, Algeria for the Spanish-operated Dravo Corporation. In Algeria he learned to get by in French and even picked up a little Arabic. Until his last days, he praised his Quebec shaft-sinking crews for their break-neck hard work but still lighted into them for their equally reckless hard play.

Upon his return to the United States, Frank resettled in Boise, ID, where he began working as an underground operations executive for the Morrison-Knudsen Company. While attending a Catholic church in Boise, he met the woman who would prove his true love, Lavonne Marie Worthington, who like Frank, had children from a previous marriage (Suzanne and Doug Martell, and Lisa (Martell) Kendall). Lavonne and Frank married in 1979 and stayed married for 40 years until Lavonne's death in 2019.

As an engineer for Morrison-Knudsen, Frank received managerial assignments over a range of underground projects, many of which involved nuclear industries. He held senior contract management positions at Hanford in Richland, Washington as well as at the Superconducting Supercollider in Waxahachie, Texas and at Oak Ridge National Laboratories near Knoxville, Tennessee.

His greatest construction achievement, undertaken upon his retirement in 1999, was the "little red brick house," which Lavonne had pined for all her life, on a property they discovered together in Nampa, Idaho. Frank spent the last two decades between caring for Lavonne as her health declined and prospecting in Montana, which led finally to his staking a claim. He made efforts to develop the claim, often with his grandchildren in tow.

Frank's own health began to decline after Lavonne's death in 2019. He became mostly blind after macular degeneration reduced vision in his right eye and a minor stroke took his left eye. He eventually settled into independent living in Boise.

After breaking his second femur in 2024, he opted to move to assisted living and finally to memory care in Burke, Virginia, just minutes from his eldest son's home. He received last rights while in hospice before he died.

Frank was a member of the U.S. Submarine Veterans in Nampa, and a 3d Degree Knight of Columbus in Boise, Idaho at Our Lady of the Rosary (Council #10581) and in Springfield, VA at St. Raymond of Penafort (John Bosco Council #12846).

He is preceded in death by his wife Lavonne (Worthington) Larvie, his daughter Kelly Anne, his brothers Arthur, David, Roger, and Earl Larvie, and his sister Mary (Larvie) Duganz.

He is survived by his younger sister Fleeta Mae (Larvie) Cooper, and by his children, John (Virginie Cybèle Deniau), Veronica (Thomas Rinehart), Mykol (Kazue Takahashi), Patrick, and by his five grandsons.

A memorial Mass was said for him at St. Raymond of Penafort in Springfield, Virginia on Wednesday 10 September. His remains will return to Boise for final disposition. Details are pending for a funeral Mass followed by graveside services at the Dry Creek Cemetery, where he will be interred with his wife Lavonne.

His family in Virginia wish to extend their sincere thanks to the good folks at Sunrise-Silas Burke and to Goodwin Hospice as well as to the clergy of St. Raymond of Penafort and to the Knights of St John Bosco Council #12846.

We ask those inclined to please make contributions in Frank's memory to the Catholic mission to the Lakota Sioux of the Rosebud Tribe: 350 South Oak Street PO Box 499 St. Francis, SD 57572 (Phone: 605-747-2361), URL: https://sfmission.org/secure-donation/.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And let the perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.