Chambers remembered for his music
By Earlene McMichael
Kalamazoo Gazette
Larry A. Chambers, a local amateur folk singer and musician, died Tuesday at Borgess Medical Center. He was 52.
Chambers, a salesman with the Bertsch Co., a wholesale pipe-fitters firm in Kalamazoo, sang and played the guitar in the 1960’s with the Side Door Singers, a folk group.
It was among the groups that opened what may have been Kalamazoo’s first coffeehouse, the Side Door, formerly located at North Westnedge and East Michigan avenues.
Chambers performed during the 1970s and 1980s for then-Hackett Catholic High School’s cabaret fund-raisers as part of a duet and later as a member of Brush Creek, a bluegrass and folk group. He would sing and play several instruments, including the banjo, guitar and little mandolin.
Brush Creek also often performed for leukemia patients at the Special Days Camp operated by Kalamazoo Dr. George Royer. The group appeared on television when a CBS news program did a story on the camp.
“On weekends during the summer, he would sit on the front porch and start playing and it would attract neighbors who enjoyed listening and playing as well,” said Chambers’ wife, Judy. “This was a big part of his life – music and friends. He was an easy-going, laid back friend to everyone. There wasn’t anybody who met him who didn’t like him.”
Besides his wife, Chambers is survived by a son, Blake Chambers of Kalamazoo; a daughter, Amy Chambers Ferchak of Fenton; and two brothers, Kevin Chambers of Oregon and Scott Chambers of Minnesota.
A memorial service was scheduled for 4 p.m. today at the Truesdale-Ansell Funeral Home, 5933 S. Westnedge, with the Rev. Wayne M. Conner officiating.
