Larry L "Ernie" Ernst

Larry L. "Ernie" Ernst, age 76 of Columbus, died Saturday, September 21 at Brookestone Acres in Columbus.

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 am Thursday, September 26 at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church.  Visitation is on Wednesday from 5-7 pm at McKown Funeral Home with a Vigil service to follow at 7:00 pm, also at the funeral home.  Visitation continues on Thursday from 9:30 am until service time at the church.  Interment is in St. Bonaventure Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers and memorials please donate on his behalf to:
Erna Badstieber's Paws & Claws
Columbus' Rock Steady Boxing Program
Scotus Central High School

Larry L. "Ernie" Ernst was born October 30, 1947 in Columbus to Albert H and Helen M (Duracinski) Ernst.  He graduated from Scotus Central Catholic and from UNL with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

After college, he briefly worked as an auditor before joining Behlen Manufacturing. He had a 50+ year career in the Accounting Dept and was the Controller of Ag Grain Systems Division for many of those years. He mentored many people during his tenure at Behlen. He thoroughly enjoyed working with "anything numbers".

Ernie loved to accompany his parents to the horse races where he could watch the horses run who were trained by his father. His favorites among those horses who won many races were Carters Oats, Eyemick, and Movie. He was an avid golfer for many years and loved watching the tournaments on T.V.

Ernie was big on Husker football and volleyball, NFL & MLB. He watched all the high school championships on T.V. and had a sports card business that he first ran out of Moore Sports and later Sports Village. Ernie sometimes reminisced about his uncle "Doc" who was part of a local basketball club called the West End Croc who beat the Harlem Globetrotters. For many years participated in several fantasy football leagues and did so until the Lord took him home.

Ernie seldom met an ice cream flavor he didn't like, but his favorite was chocolate. (ANYTHING chocolate.) For quite a while, he became the ice cream delivery man for other less mobile residents in the Meadowlark Neighborhood of Brookstone Acres. Gathering orders for them and taking the rolinator down to the machine to gather and deliver room to room. He also liked the Bingo parties there where he won various prizes.

His favorite vacation was the Alaskan cruise he took a few years ago. Revisited in memory often during his last month's on earth.

Ernie is survived by cousins and many good friends including his adopted kin, Pam Shank.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Albert and Helen Ernst

Huge THANK YOU to the staff of Brookstone Acres, and in the end, St Croix Hospice who took such wonderful care of him until his soul's journey home was complete. Thank you also to the people at McKown Funeral Home for taking great care of him until his body is laid to rest.