Larry Robertson, well-known and loved in hometown San Pedro circles, died Saturday, April 4 from what is believed to have been COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
He and his wife, Faye Robertson, who became ill a few days before her husband, had been advised by their doctor to remain quarantined in their home. Larry Robertson’s illness took a fast and devastating turn in the last couple days, friends said. His wife is improving but now is quarantined in their Rancho Palos Verdes home alone.
“There are no words,” said Larry Robertson’s sister, Linda Cherney of Anaheim. “Faye is home in isolation; we can’t get to her and she can’t get to us. It’s a big mess.”
Larry Robertson was 72 and had no underlying conditions, his sister said.
A former longtime press supervisor for the San Pedro News-Pilot and Torrance Daily Breeze, Larry Robertson for the past decade worked at the Port of Los Angeles assisting cruise ship passengers who needed help getting on and off ships — work that included pushing wheelchairs. He and his wife both were working in that capacity until March 14, when the industry, which was heavily hit with the spread of the virus, shut down and everyone was ordered to stay home.
“He had all the symptoms” but was never tested, Cherney said.
Friends said their doctor was in regular touch by telephone.
Her brother appeared to be doing “OK,” Cherney said, until the final days when Larry Robertson told his sister he’d never felt so sick. That was on Wednesday, April 1, and he died early in the morning three days later. It was the last time she talked to him.
Larry Robertson, a 1965 San Pedro High School graduate, was well known throughout the community, especially in alumni circles, where he remained active. He carried on the 50-50 fundraiser for the high school’s Booster Club that had been started by his father, Jim Robertson, who worked for the Los Angeles Harbor Department.
He was active in the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club and the bocce ball tournaments held every September on San Pedro’s waterfront. Larry Robertson would barbecue the swordfish for the popular events.
Tall and with a full head of gray hair, Larry Robertson still worked out at the YMCA and “always had a smile on his face,” his sister said.
“He was in good shape,” said Joe Trani, a friend since their days as kindergarteners at Bandini Street Elementary School in San Pedro. “He could have passed for Sam Elliot. … If Larry contracted this, anybody can get it.”
Trani recalled how Larry Robertson visited him several times a week a few years ago, when a rare spinal condition landed him in the hospital for 90 days. He came bearing Amalfitano Bakery pastries for the staff and sausage sandwiches from Giuliano’s for Trani.
“He was an amazing friend, he was a guy who was always there for you,” Trani said, recalling that he was there cheering him on the first time he walked again using the parallel bars.
Larry Robertson also had a mischievous side, he said.
He was best man at Trani’s 1971 wedding at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Pedro.
“When I kneeled down at the altar, Larry had written, ‘Am I sure about this?’ on the bottom of my shoes,” Trani said.
Their high school and post-high school years were filled with football games, cruising on Pacific Avenue and venturing up to the Sunset Strip, where all the popular clubs were.
After high school, Larry Robertson graduated from Los Angeles Harbor College. Both he and Trani served in the Army Reserves at Fort MacArthur but were never called up to serve in Vietnam.
In 1967, Larry Robertson’s beloved 1956 Chevy was stolen and stripped.
“It was the first time I’d seen him shed a tear,” Trani said. “It was midnight blue and silver, two-toned, and it got stolen.”
Found three days later in an alley in Compton, the car was stripped bare and totaled by the time it was towed to the impound yard.
“They got his stereo, engine parts, everything,” Trani said. “The wheels were gone. He broke down when he saw it.”
The last time Trani called the house, Larry Robertson was too weak to come to the phone.
“Three days, later he passed,” he said.
Along with Trani, John Otte and Rob Thorsen, Leon and Britt Carr were among Robertson’s closest friends through the years.
“He’s a person everybody knows,” Britt Carr said.
He also was a good friend of Monsignor John Barry of American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach. Barry recently tested positive for the coronavirus.
“He always loved Larry,” Trani said of the Monsignor. “Larry was never converted, but (Barry) would always light up when he saw him. ‘Mr. Sparkle,’ he used to call him.”
Larry Robertson’s many friends had been keeping tabs on him and his wife in the past week, Britt Carr said. Early on, their illnesses were thought to be a cold, until the final days, when Larry Robertson began to exhibit more serious symptoms.
“He was really sick with a high fever, coughing, weakness,” Britt Carr said. “He had no taste or smell.”
“He was just a good man,” she said. “We’re all reeling.”
Joe Bensoua, who knew Larry Robertson for years as a Daily Breeze colleague and later working alongside him at the cruise terminal, said news of his death was shocking.
“I do not know a person in our sphere who did not like Larry; he was always gracious,” he said. “He had a patience that I’d never have. He always went above and beyond and never complained. He was one of a kind.”
The family will be meeting with Green Hills Memorial Park staff on Wednesday, April 8, to try to chart a way forward.
“This is just like a nightmare,” said Cherney, Larry Robertson’s sister. “He was always Mr. San Pedro. He loved San Pedro. We were born and raised there.”
She and her brother were known as “Irish twins,” born 11 months apart.
Everybody, she said, “needs to believe this (virus) is real.”
The death is particularly difficult, she said, due to the required isolation for his wife and the inability to deal with making plans for a funeral.
For now, friends and family call and leave food for Faye Robertson on the doorstep.
“It’s normal to take the survivor in your arms and take care of her,” Cherney said. “But that’s not the case here. There’s no end in sight.”
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