For most of his life Larry Fleeman carried on a love affair with cars of a certain age. He sought them out, saw they were fixed up till they shone like new, and then found good homes for them with his customers.
Over four decades, Mr. Fleeman, who resided outside Dacula, was in the used car business, the last 20 years with partner Marvin Hewatt of Lawrenceville. Together, they built U.S. Autos Inc. from scratch to a business with 200 employees and 10 locations across metro Atlanta, plus Athens.
Mr. Hewatt said the two of them were close friends long before they became business partners. “For many years,” he said, “I would call Larry daily for what I came to call my morning motivational boost. He was the most positive person I ever met. He saw good in everyone he met. I never heard him criticize anyone.”
Mr. Fleeman’s upbeat personality was a key to his winning ways with customers, Mr. Hewatt said -- that plus his automotive acumen.
“Larry knew all there was to know about cars,” Mr. Hewatt said. “He would check them thoroughly and could determine exactly what needed fixing or replacing. And everything had to be OK before a car was put up for sale.”
Mr. Hewatt said Mr. Fleeman worked as a 14-year-old for the late Steve Reynolds, the former Gwinnett state senator, at one of Mr. Reynolds’ Gulf service stations.
“Even as a kid Larry, with his sales savvy, impressed Mr. Reynolds,” Mr. Hewatt said. “When Larry was told to urge customers to buy replacement windshield wipers, he sometimes sold two at a time -- one for the windshield and one for the trunk as a spare.”
Larry Lathan Fleeman, 66, died Wednesday at Emory University Hospital of complications from acute myeloid leukemia. His funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hebron Baptist Church in Dacula, with burial to follow at the Alcova Baptist Church cemetery in Lawrenceville. Tim Stewart Funeral Home, Lawrenceville, is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Fleeman was mayor of Dacula from 1979 to 1985, when he and his family moved to a house outside its city limits.
“Larry was a popular mayor,” said longtime Dacula council member Wendell Holcombe, “so much so that those of us who supported him considered annexing the area where he moved so he could stay in office, but we didn’t get around to doing that.”
Some big changes occurred during Mr. Fleeman’s six years in office. The city clerk at the time, Joyce Norman, said Dacula undertook a $1 million upgrade of its water system, the Dacula Road bridge over railroad tracks was replaced, City Hall was remodeled, and the city’s volunteer fire unit was disbanded in favor of coverage from the Gwinnett County Fire Department.
One ordinance passed during Mr. Fleeman’s tenure provided for a stricter building code because, Mr. Holcombe said, “Larry wanted to make certain buyers of new homes wouldn’t be ripped off by slipshod construction work.”
When he ran for mayor, said his wife, Judy Fleeman, “Larry knocked on every door of every house in town."
"Of course,” she added, “there were a lot fewer homes in Dacula back then.”
As mayor, she said, Mr. Fleeman contributed his salary to charitable organizations.
Survivors also include a daughter, Ashley Toler of Dacula; a son, Russell Fleeman of Dacula; his mother Bonnie Fleeman of Lawrenceville; two sisters, Faye Sammons of Lawrenceville and Donna Mitchell of Dacula; and three grandchildren.
About the Author
