Larry Station Sr. approached life head-on with the firm conviction that no task was too difficult.

“That was just the work ethic that my dad had,” said eldest daughter Laree Daniel of Seale, Alabama. “For him, there was nothing to it but to do it. If there’s a problem, solve it and move on.”

Station, 76, died April 8 after contracting pneumonia, his daughter said. A celebration of life service will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Phenix City, Alabama.

Station served the church as head deacon and assistant personal ministries director. He also led the church’s jail ministry outreach, counseling inmates on weekends.

“He loved people,” his daughter said. “He also loved life, and he loved the Lord.”

Station graduated from Omaha’s Tech High in 1959 and married his childhood sweetheart, Anna Greene, in 1960.

Station worked many jobs as a young man, his daughter said, including parking cars and stocking grocery shelves. Later, he operated three grocery stores.

The stores were in underserved areas of northeast Omaha, with the first cleverly named “Larry’s Food Station.” Sister stores “Another Food Station” and “Anna’s Food Station” followed.

During the heyday of Ak-Sar-Ben horse racing, Station came up with a unique slogan. He had “Feed Your Faces Before You Go to the Races” painted on the wall of the store at 33rd and Lake Streets.

“Dad worked seven days a week,” his daughter said. “Long after he sold the stores, people would approach him on the street to thank him for extending credit to their families so they could buy groceries.”

Station also worked as an Omaha firefighter from 1963 to 1968. He later sat on the board of the first African-American-owned bank in Omaha, was a board member for the Omaha Economic Development Corp. and volunteered as a Big Brother.

He and his wife apparently passed along that strong work ethic to their children.

Laree Daniel retired after working as the chief administrative officer of Aflac Insurance in Columbus, Georgia. Her sister, Kelli Phillip, is a Yale Law School graduate now practicing in New York City.

Station’s son, Larry Station Jr., played linebacker for four years at the University of Iowa and was a consensus first team All-American in 1984. He played a year in the National Football League before a back injury sidelined him.

The son then went to work for Xerox Corp. in Chicago before returning to Omaha to take over the family grocery business.

In 2009, Larry and Anna Station moved to Alabama to help operate their eldest daughter’s farm. It was a good fit.

“He loved being out in the open and being able to grow things,” son-in-law Ray Daniel said. “He also found that he loved landscaping. Basically, whatever he turned his hand to, he did all the way.”

In addition to his wife and children, Station is survived by brothers Frank Wilson and Ausby Station Jr.; and sisters Elaine Nunn and Dorothy Hodges, all of Omaha.