Larry Carroll and his wife, Mary Anne, frequently hauled colorful plastic tote bins filled with dollhouse miniatures from their home in Valley City to flea markets, conventions and festivals across Ohio and adjacent states.

Upon arriving at such destinations as Jamie’s Flea Market in South Amherst, the East Oberlin Flea Market and assorted craft shows, they set up lighted display tables on which they created miniature showrooms with tiny sofas, lamps and Victorian chairs.

The Dash Between: About this new feature

The dates of birth and death that appear like bookends on a tombstone do not matter as much as the dash between those dates: The life that a person lived. Alana Baranick The Dash Between, a new obituary feature written by Alana Baranick about regular folks from Medina County and adjacent areas, debuts in today’s Gazette. Baranick wrote her first obit in 1985 when she was a reporter for The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria. She wrote obituaries for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer from 1992 through 2008. "Life on the Death Beat" She is the chief author of “Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers” and director of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers. She won the 2005 American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in the Obituary category. The Dash Between is scheduled to appear in The Gazette once a month. To suggest a story or make a comment, contact Baranick at abaranick@chroniclet.com.

“Because of the nature of the small scale of the items involved, it was almost magical — reminiscent of the toy store featured in the movie ‘Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,’ with Dustin Hoffmanand Natalie Portman,” their son Patrick said.

Larry, 84, died Oct. 27, 2009, two weeks shy of a year after he was widowed. His wife of 61 years died Nov. 10, 2008.

Larry did the legwork for his wife’s “Mac’s Dollhouserie” business after retiring as a plumber for Wiemels Plumbing in Cleveland in the 1980s.

Around 1990, he purchased a Sears precut wooden kit barn, which he built in the backyard for storing dollhouse wares.

“Since I can remember, my parents always shopped at Sears,” son Tim said. “As a kid, we always got most of our school clothes at Sears. My dad’s suits in his closet were Sears.”

The Carrolls bought curtains, rugs and pet supplies at Sears, as well as Craftsman tools, Coleman camping equipment and Kenmore appliances, large and small. They even used Sears Auto Service.

“I found it funny that the last residence they would live in was one of those early 20th-Century Sears house kits,” Tim said.

Larry, whose full name was Laurence J. Carroll, was born in Cleveland and grew up in a non-Sears house in the city’s Kamm’s Corners area. His only brother, Eugene, was 11 when Larry was born.

Their father was the Cleveland water commissioner.

As a youngster, Larry earned ice cream money by sweeping out the display window and rearranging plumbing fixtures at his grandfather’s plumbing business near St. Ignatius High School.

He attended West Technical High School, where he belonged to the horticulture club, grew some prize-winning orchids and was lab partners with Kaye Ballard, who became a famous comedienne, actress and TV star.

Caught up in the patriotic fervor that accompanied the entry of the United States into World War II, Larry left high school early to serve in the military. After each branch of the armed forces rejected him because he had flat feet, he found another avenue of service: transporting materials for the war effort with the Merchant Marine.

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After the war, Larry met and married Mary Anne Pitts. Together they raised five children — Marge Zagata, Maureen Reyes, Michael, E. Patrick and Tim — and several pets.

“My dad loved dogs as well as all animals,” daughter Marge said. “Growing up we always had one or more dogs. We had a beagle/hound mix whose name was ‘Plumber’ that they acquired before I was born.”

Larry took Plumber camping with the family when the kids were young. In his later years, he took Plumber’s successors on road trips with Mary Anne to such places as Alaska and Newfoundland.

“Twice in the late 1970s, they traveled to the Arctic Circle perimeter in a ’76 Coachman camper all the way up the Alaskan Highway, which was just a gravel road due to permafrost,” Patrick said. “They met Inuit people, bears and moose. They drove everywhere on these trips. Dad especially wanted to simply be a part of life, as life was happening.”

Larry’s kids remember him as always being happy and lots of fun.

“When he came home from work, he would always have some kind of a treat in his pocket for each of us,” Marge said. “And we would often have a group hug with all of us kids and my mom and dad. I am sure my dad was exhausted from a hard day’s work, but he never showed it.”

Larry’s work included testing backflow prevention devices, which protect water supplies from contamination and pollution, for the state of Ohio. As such, he was an official inspector for the government.

“He had a badge for that, and he liked to flash it,” Patrick said.

Larry began volunteering as an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 69 in Olmsted Falls in the 1960s when his sons were Scouts.

After retiring to Valley City in 1986, he became a unit commissioner for the Boy Scouts of America’s Chippewa District Great Trail Council.

In 1998, Plumbers Local 55 gave Larry the George Meany Award for his outstanding contributions to the youth of his community through scouting.

“Pops deserves recognition, and people should know that men of fine character did exist and still do today,” said Larry’s daughter-in-law Jeannie. “I believe some of the young men of today could take a lesson from Pops. What’s really important? Family.”

Contact Alana Baranick at abaranick@chroniclet.com or (216) 862-2617.