Larry “LT” Thomas Bradford

Richland , WA

Larry passed away peacefully on July 7, 2016 in his sleep at his home in Richland. He was 65 years old. He was the first born of four children to Billie Nadene Bradford and Jess Thomas Bradford in Los Angeles on September 2, 1950, which for his mom was appropriately Labor Day. His family lived in southern California throughout his school years, where he and Donna became high school sweethearts and graduated from Santa Fe High School together in 1968.

Larry is survived by his mother, Billie, his sister Becky, his brothers Dan (Sandy) and Alan (Shawn) . He is also survived by his son Kevin (Tiffany), grandsons Cody and Kai and his son Eric (Jenni). In addition, he is survived by numerous wonderful nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents, his father Jess, his uncle Bob Riley, his cousin Bob Koontz and many aunts and uncles. 

Larry served two years in the Marine Corps and was able to avoid Viet Nam when he was assigned to air traffic control in Santa Ana. After serving in the Marine Corps, he and Donna decided to move to beautiful Washington State to raise a family. His family had moved to Richland previously. Larry worked at various jobs to pay the rent, but longed to be a Richland policeman. He loaded box cars in 100 degree heat and was a janitor at the Federal Building, and other odd jobs.

Then on October 26, 1971 his career dream came true and he was hired on the Richland police department. This began a 32-year career that included many years on the bomb squad before they had the much needed equipment they have now. “Cut the green wire” was the joke, and a pipe bomb did explode in Larry’s face once, but he healed up great. He was so happy to see the day when the current bomb squad had a bomb truck, bomb suits, a robot, and all of the

equipment to make their jobs safer. He was a detective for some years, and was also on the hostage negotiation team for a while. His favorite assignment was being the sergeant of his squad. He considered his squad family and we had numerous family BBQs in our back yard with the officers and their families. 

Larry and Donna were married on August 9, 1969, so almost made it to 47 years. Because of the high school sweetheart time, we’ve been a couple for 50 years. We’ve had some wonderful vacations, and were planning more, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Our sons mean so much to us. Kevin Thomas Bradford was born in 1974, and Eric John Bradford was born in 1976. We did a lot of camping and fishing with them, and several other vacations – the beach, Disneyland, Kauai and more. Please pray for them, as they are handling their grief in different ways. 

A memorial gathering will be held at Einan’s event center on Saturday, August 6th from 2 pm to 6 pm. There will be finger foods and an open mic if you’d like to say anything about Larry. He loved his family so much, and to his cop friends would want to say “Be safe out there.”