Before his junior year at Florida State University, Larry J. Sowders took a job managing the Golden Bear restaurant in Kokomo, Ind. “It was a summer job, just to make money to go back to college,” said his wife, Gloria. “He made so much money, he couldn’t afford to go back to college.” Thus started Mr. Sowders’ career. Mr. Sowders, 58, of Streator, a former owner of Oogie’s Inc. restaurants, died Monday, Feb. 23, in OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, four days after suffering a brain aneurysm. Golden Bear Family Restaurants eventually made him district manager of 11 suburban restaurants. In 1970, three years after starting with Golden Bear, he married Gloria Stoffer, his childhood sweetheart. To be closer to his ailing father, Mr. Sowders returned to his hometown of Tipton, Ind., in 1973 and opened Six Acres Restaurant, which was destroyed by a fire in 1977. In 1984, after a period of consulting, he went to work for Oogie’s restaurant owner Andrew Muhlstadt, who Mr. Sowders had brought into the business years before. When Muhlstadt died in 1986, Mr. Sowders and other investors bought the chain, which had five restaurants when Mr. Sowders closed it in 2001 because of declining health. “He was very outgoing, very passionate in everything he did,” his wife said. “He may have worked hard, but he also played hard.” Mr. Sowders also is survived by a daughter, Christi; a son, Joe; his mother, Sue Sowders-Book; two brothers, Victor and Gene; two sisters, Tammie and Mary Lee Mitchell; and a granddaughter. Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Solon, Baker & Telford Funeral Home, 301 S. Park St., Streator; and from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by services, in Leatherman-Morris-Boyer Funeral Home, 314 N. Main St., Tipton, Ind.
