Funeral Set for Gordon Lively Sr.
Posted/updated on: January 3, 2012 at 2:24 am
LONGVIEW — Funeral services are scheduled for Tuesday for Longview businessman and civic leader Gordon R. Lively Sr. Lively, who was 85, died Friday at his home of natural causes.
An outgoing man who kept quiet about his community contributions, Lively impacted Longview with less fanfare than might be expected from a successful auto dealer. “He did liven up lives for people,” attorney Jerry Harris said, referring as much to Lively’s spirited personality as the charity and community building work his friend quietly accomplished. “Whatever the environment, he added to it.”
Arriving in Longview in 1967 to buy the former Harris Olds Cadillac dealership on Green Street downtown, Lively soon added the GMC truck line to his sales floor. Within a few years, he moved his growing dealership across Marshall Avenue to the relatively uninhabited area, where it continues as a McCann Road mainstay.
Funeral service for Lively will be 2:30 Tuesday afternoon in Rosewood Park cemetery under direction of Rader Funeral Home of Longview. The family will receive condolence calls from 5:00 to 6:30 today at the Judson Road funeral home.
