Jim E. LaRue
Funeral services for Jim E. LaRue, an outstanding athlete at Clinton High School in the 1940s, will be held Monday in Tucson, Ariz., where he lived for about 30 years.
LaRue died Sunday, March 29, in Tucson at age 89.
He was born Aug. 11, 1925, in Clinton to Jessie B. and Fred E. LaRue. While attending Clinton High School, he won All-State honors in football.
Following his graduation, he joined the Navy V-12 Pilot training program. The Navy sent him to Carson-Newman College at Jefferson City, Tenn., where he met his future wife, Betty Jean Coleman, to whom he was married for 60 years.
The Navy also sent him to Duke University where he earned his officer’s commission. Following World War II he was assigned to Japan where he served as officer in charge of LST 853.
In 1947 he returned to college, attending the University of Maryland. He later coached at a number of universities, including the University of Arizona at Tucson where he was head coach from 1959 through 1966.
Afterwards he spent 24 years as an assistant coach in the National Football League, the last 22 with the Chicago Bears. He retired from the Bears in 1993 and returned to Tucson where he had lived since.
LaRue was in poor health prior to his death. His brother, Bob LaRue, told the Clinton Daily News that he broke a hip and then contracted pneumonia.
Services are planned at 1 p.m. Monday at Christ Church United Methodist in Tucson, where he was a member, followed by interment at 3 p.m. in the East Lawn Palms Mortuary. A reception and celebration of life will begin at 4 p.m. at Tucson Botanical Gardens.
LaRue is survived by his brother, Bob, and his wife, the former Joan Finkenbinder, also former Clintonites now living in Tucson. Other survivors include three children and their spouses, Jill (LaRue) Ettinger and husband Tom of Cashmere, Wash., Judy (LaRue) McCarthy and husband Craig of Tucson, and Tom LaRue and wife GaYoung Kim of Okinawa, Japan, plus five grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions be sent in LaRue’s name to TMC Hospice.