Larry Hensley, 67
Retired Carthage banker Larry Hensley, of the Tanglewood Community died at 3:50 p.m. Friday afternoon, March 20 at his Sunny View Lane home with his family at his bedside.
Retired Carthage banker Larry Hensley, of the Tanglewood Community died at 3:50 p.m. Friday afternoon, March 20 at his Sunny View Lane home with his family at his bedside. Mr. Hensley suffered from a respiratory illness. He was 67.
Sunday afternoon funeral services were conducted from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home at 3 p.m. His pastor, Eld. James “Pee Wee” Massey and Eld. Charles Allen Gentry officiated and burial was in Smith County Memorial Gardens.
The son of the late Robert Arthur and Belvia Elizabeth Plumlee Hensley, he was born Robert Larry Hensley in South Carthage on December 5, 1940 and was one of their three sons.
On September 20, 1961, Mr. Hensley was united in marriage to the former Carol Blair of Chestnut Mound. They were married by the late Eld. Phocian Gibbs at Bro. Gibbs’ home.
Mr. Hensley was an outstanding community minded servant. He was a member of the South Carthage Volunteer Fire Department beginning in 1965 serving as both the assistant chief and later as Chief before his retirement from the department in 1990.
He served on the Smith County Chamber of Commerce Board and was it’s President for one year.
He was also a member of the board of directors of the Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation for fourteen years and served as the board chairman for eight of those years with a tenure spanning from 1992 until 2006.
He also was vice mayor of the City of South Carthage council on which he served from 1967 through 1981.
Mr. Hensley graduated from Smith County High School in 1958 and in that month began employment with Mixon-Noller Oil Co. in South Carthage where he worked until entering the banking industry in 1978.
In September of 1978 he was employed by the former Smith County Bank as a loan officer where he was employed until April of 1983 when he joined the staff of Cumberland Bank in Carthage. He retired as the Bank president in 2003 and continued doing consulting work for the bank until total retirement in 2007. Mr. Hensley’s banking career spanned twenty-nine years.
He was a longtime member of the Carthage Rotary Club and received the William T. Sergeant award for perfect attendant in 1983 and 1984.
Mr. Hensley was a member of the South Carthage Missionary Baptist Church where he served as a Deacon.
Surviving in addition to his wife of forty-six years is a son, Scott Hensley and his wife, Carthage Nurse Practitioner, Anne Hensley of Tanglewood; grandchildren, Richard Davenport of Des Moines, Iowa, Blair Hensley Speck and husband Kevin of Tanglewood; two brothers, Eld. Kenny Hensley and wife Charlotte of Boultons Bend, Jimmy Hensley of Carthage.
The Hensley family has requested memorials to the Smith County Cancer Fund.
