Lawrence James Blockno, age 76, died, Tuesday, May 14, 2018, at Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc, Michigan. In accordance with Lawrence’s wishes cremation has taken place. No services have been scheduled at this time. Lawrence was born on October 12, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan to Mr. & Mrs. Richard and Marge (Jarvis) Blockno. He will be greatly missed by many. Friends may share a memory with the family online at www.martinfuneralhome.com.
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Ron Frederick
I’m saddened to learn of Larry’s passing. I have great memories of him and the fun times we had playing and joking around in the drum section of band and orchestra. I played snare drum and Larry tympani. He also played drum set in the Dixieland band. We were both drum majors for the marching band (Larry in 1959 and me in 1960). He also played in an early rock and roll band outside of school and had to be the first rock and roll drummer to come out of Mackenzie. Below is a photo of him rehearsing with Dennis Coffey (on the right) of eventual Motown fame (the pic is from Dennis’s FB page). Dennis also played upright bass in the school orchestra. In his book, Guitars, Bars, and Motown Superstars,Dennis tells a great story of being asked to play guitar at a school assembly and being unplugged and yanked off the stage for playing some nasty rock and roll.
One of our other band mates was Joe Podorsek who played upright bass and some fine guitar. We played together in a “beat nick” band. I was on bongos, Sue Sexmith on flute, Ken Clavon on bass drum, and Joe on guitar. We didn’t last very long as group. Joe went on to much musical success performing all over the Detroit area and to eventually owning Capital Music where he also taught guitar. One of his students was Ted Nugent.
Ah, so many great memories. Rock on LB.
Ron Frederick