LAWRENCE E. "LARRY" LEVINE, 59, passed away Thursday, 
Nov. 14, 2002, in St. Mary’s Medical Center, Huntington. 
Larry was a lifelong resident of Huntington, W.Va. and 
a member of B’Nai Sholom Congregation. Larry graduated 
from Huntington High School in 1961 and from Marshall 
University with a teaching degree in 1966. While at 
Marshall, Larry was a member of the R.O.T.C. drum and 
bugle corps and also a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon 
fraternity, for which he later served as an adviser. 
Larry was a founding member and drummer for the 
Collegiates, a musical group that was popular throughout 
the Tri-State area in the 1960s. Although he began his 
career as a mathematics teacher at Huntington High School, 
Larry will best be remembered as co-founder and vice-
president of The Pied Piper, Inc., a Huntington-based 
musical instrument and audio-video retail store. With 
his brother, Charles S. "Chuck" Levine, Larry opened and 
operated five Pied Piper locations in West Virginia and 
Kentucky. Larry and Chuck were also partners in C & L 
Realty, a Tri-State real estate development and rental 
company. Larry served as a director of the Guaranty Bank 
and Trust Company and was a past director of Guaranty 
National Bank, the Huntington branch of Commerce Bank 
and the Huntington branch of the Huntington Bank. Larry 
served on the Board of Directors and was past president 
of the Huntington YMCA and was a board member of the 
Cabell County American Cancer Society. Born in 1943, 
Larry was the son of Louis E. and Lillian S. Levine. 
Larry is survived by his wife, Janice Levine; two sons, 
Kevin Levine and Derek Levine; and his brother and 
sister-in-law, Charles S. "Chuck" Levine and Loretta 
Levine. Larry is also survived by a host of loving 
sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews and 
many lifelong friends. In lieu of flowers, donations 
may be made to the American Cancer Society, the 
Huntington Y.M.C.A. or the B’Nai Sholom Congregation 
Building Restoration Fund. Funeral 1 p.m. Monday at 
B’Nai Sholom Congregation, Huntington; entombment in 
Spring Hill Cemetery. Visitation from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 
Monday at B’Nai Sholom Congregation. Arrangements by 
Reger Funeral Home, Huntington.
.........................................................
Pied Piper founder, owner dies at 59
The Herald-Dispatch      16Nov02
HUNTINGTON -- In business and in promoting area music,
Lawrence E. "Larry" Levine was a true pied piper.
Levine, 59, of Huntington, and his brother, Chuck, 
built a musical legacy from scratch. The Pied Piper,
which closed earlier this year, was an important
downtown business in Huntington for 35 years. And its
branches throughout West Virginia and eastern Kentucky
helped make it one of the largest music store chains
in the country.
  The community-minded brothers also brought in the
Drums Across the Tri-State, which ran for 23 years
through 2001. The show was one of the most well
respected and oldest continuously-running Drum Corps
International shows in the United States.
  Levine, the husband of Janice Murphy Levine, died 
Thursday at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Funeral
services are set for 1 p.m. Monday at the B’Nai Sholom
Congregation with Rabbi David Wucher officiating.
Friends may call from 11 a.m. until the service on
Monday.
  Larry and Chuck Levine started the Pied Piper at
1035 4th. Ave., in June of 1967. When widespread
urban renewal demolished their building to make way
for a parking lot, the brothers bought a triangular
shaped piece of property at Third Avenue and Veterans
Memorial Boulevard, where they had built a unique
Tudor-style building that was a 15,000-square-foot
music mall that housed everything from a supersized
showroom and a 150-person auditorium, to full car
audio installation bays, and even a fountain. By
1991, The Pied Piper was considered by "Music Trades"
magazine to be the nation’s third largest full-line
music store chain.
  Perhaps part of that business success among music
lovers, was that both Larry and Chuck were professional
musicians. Larry, who actually kept teaching at
Huntington High School during the first year they were
in business in ’67, played drums in a well-known dance
band called the Collegiates.