Meet Larry
More Than You Want to Know About
Larry E. Buttram
Larry’s Personal History
Born August 15, 1959, in Tulsa, OK, Larry was raised in the small rural town of Baxter Springs, KS. Larry graduated high school in 1977.
Larry is married and has two children. He married Carolyn Albright on September 4, 1982. After moving to Little Rock, they started their family and had their first child, a daughter, Courtney Lynn Buttram, on May 11, 1986. His son, Kyle David Buttram, was born on August 22, 1989. Larry and Carol currently work together owning and managing Bobby’s Country Cookin’ in Little Rock, AR.
Courtney was married to Dallas Dillon on August 28th, 2009, and currently lives in Frisco, Texas where she is a counselor using her master’s degree in child therapy in a very successful counseling practice and Dallas is using his master’s degree in accounting. Courtney and Dallas both graduated from Southwestern Assemblies of God University located in Waxahachie, TX.
In 2014 Courtney and Dallas had a son named James Kal El’ Dillon making Larry a proud Papa! If you ask Larry, he will proudly tell you that James is “pure perfection”, and he is the “worlds greatest grandson”. James has his own YouTube channel “Hangin with James” go give him a follow.
Kyle studied to be a Pastry Chef at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Kyle experienced a prestigious externship working with the executive and assistant pastry chefs at the Inn at Spanish Bay, a part of the renowned Pebble Beach Resort located near Monterey Bay on the California coast. He achieved his culinary degree and graduate in 2012. He married Taryn Atchison on August 2, 2014, and they now reside in Ozark, MO where they own and Taryn runs Stone Hill Farm and Kyle is the Head Pastry Chef at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, MO.
If you are around Larry even a short time you will know of his pride in his children.
Larry’s involvement in the local church includes such activities as soloist and praise and worship team member, Sunday School teacher, and he served as a member of the Board of Directors for multiple terms.
Larry was elected to the board of directors of the Power-Motion Technology Representatives Association in Chicago, IL. PTRA is a nationwide trade organization for sales representatives in power transmission and motion control industries. He served as board member for the Southwestern University Foundation in Waxahachie, TX. Larry also has served as a board member for WorldServ, a humanitarian/compassionate organization located in Springfield, MO.
Larry is an avid golfer and loves bass fishing.
Larry’s Professional History
Bobby’s Country Cookin’
Little Rock, AR
January 2015 – Present
On Monday 1.19.2015 Carol and Larry started a new adventure. Larry left the financial/insurance business. With great excitement they became the new owners of Bobby’s Country Cookin’ in Little Rock, AR.
We had been looking at a change for some time now and must admit we thought that our change may take us too Dallas, TX. However, the opportunity opened for us to purchase Larry’s favorite lunch place (only open for lunch 10:30-2:00 M-F). He’s always said, “Bobby’s has the best fried chicken and okra in town”. However, he never thought he would own it, but they now own his favorite lunch spot.
Carol was probably more excited about this than Larry even though he was pumped too. Carol says she’s never got to work by Larry’s side and was really looking forward to this joint adventure. It has proven to be fun building this business together! Since that time, we have grown to love the business. Our staff is the best staff an employer could ever ask for and our customers love the food and service they receive. We see many people each day for lunch since we change two of our entree’s daily you can eat there each day and have something different each day.
“Like Comin’ Home To Eat”
Zguard
Little Rock, AR
January 2011 – Present
Larry also started a new business in 2011 named Zguard. The Zguard bedside gun mount provides an easy way of storing a handgun on the bed for quick access for personal safety. This is accomplished by using the Zguard which attaches to the bed by sliding between the mattress and box springs with a favorite handgun attached for ease and convenience.
The Zguard is made of durable ABS plastic. It has six slots that allow for left-hand and right-hand use on the bed. Four of the slots are usable on each side of the bed. Two of the slots are angled, one for a lower mount, one for a higher mount; of the other two slots, one is vertical, and the other is horizontal. The slots are cut into the plastic the width of most standard gun holsters which allows a standard gun holster to be mounted with Velcro strips or zip ties.
Ladies, if an attacker breaks in and throws you on the bed, you can fight and move until you are within range of getting your weapon. Once there, and you settle down as he is demanding you to, you can secretly drop your arm to the side of the bed, draw your gun from the Zguard and surprise your attacker by shooting him in the chest.
This is a must have for home security and your personal safety!
Innovative Financial Partners
Little Rock, AR
August 2007 – January 2015
Larry began the transition into his financial career in 2004. He carried his insurance license since 2004 and his brokerage registrations since 2005. He was with Synergy Investment Group as his broker dealer until moving to LPL Financial in 2007. Larry and Mason Cozart were business partners in Innovative Financial Partners.
Seminar day was very special to Larry because he did most of the speaking at the seminars. He loved meeting new people and speaking in seminars. Larry has said that as much as he has loved each business opportunity he has had in life and each company he has owned, he loved this career in ‘wealth management’ best. Larry says, “It’s been fun to build and grow businesses and sell them off, but helping people try to grow their wealth, no matter the size of their nest egg, was really fun and rewarding.
I really enjoyed the interaction with our clients!
Building relationships with our clients was a fun part of my job. I didn’t do much alone because our company was built strictly around “Team”.
While my business partner handled a lot of the actual money management, I handled the marketing and planning of our events. This business was a fun business because you get to hear people’s dreams and goals and then work with them to try to attain them. Mason Cozart still operates this investment company.
Dyna/Reps, Inc.
Little Rock, AR
September 1983 – January 2007
Dyna\Reps, Inc. was a manufacturer’s representative sales organization, specializing in power transmission and material conveying components, covering the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, western Tennessee, Missouri and Kansas.
Larry started working there with a goal in mind to own half the company. Within a few short years Larry had obtained that goal. In 1986, Larry became a business partner, owning fifty percent of the shares of stock. On July 1, 1991, Larry purchased the remaining shares of stock and became the president and owner of Dyna\Reps, Inc.
During that time, we covered AR/MS/LA/TN/MO/KS, and we had branch offices in each state with sales reps to cover the territory. In Little Rock we had a warehouse staffed with inside salespeople and warehouse people to ship daily to our customers where we offered overnight service to most areas.
Once Larry decided to change careers, he sold half the company to a company in Dallas, TX and the other half to a company in Birmingham, AL.
Gus Shaffer Ford
Joplin, MO
1981 – 1983
Larry was a sales rep on the new car side of the business. To sell cars back then was hard to say the least. Interest rates were sky high, and money was tight.
He started with no experience in sales and got made fun of. He was laughed at for taking every minute he could including lunch and after hours to watch training tapes for both sales and product feature and benefits. However, after the first month on the floor the giggles left as he became the #1 new car salesperson during his first month. He repeated being #1 for the next three months until one person beat him by one car to take the title. However, he was always one of the top performers during his tenure of selling cars. Larry earned his respect from others! When others couldn’t close the deal, they called him in to close it, and close it he did.
It was a tough market back then, but “I worked hard, smart and sold my heart out and put people in the cars of their dreams”.
Larry has many great stories and memories from his time there that to this day given the opportunity to speak about customer service or sales he shares with people.
Kenn Mann Ministries
San Jose, CA
1977 – 1979
After graduating high school in 1977, Larry was hired by Kenn Mann Ministries, Inc., of San Jose, CA where he traveled for two years throughout the United States, Canada and Hawaii. “This job was a great time in my life that I got to meet lots of new people and go many new places. As a young kid just out of high school to traveling extensively, I fell in love with getting to see new places”. His job was crusade director, as well as crusade soloist. Larry has been singing in public since age three.
After traveling with Kenn for two years, he moved back to Kansas where he started Larry E. Buttram Ministries, Inc. and traveled doing both speaking engagements and concerts.
Larry E. Buttram Ministries
Baxter Springs, KS
1979 – 1983
Larry grew up in church and started singing at the age of three. His parents would take him to sing in different churches as a child and he grew up traveling to sing and held a concert schedule through JR High and High School.
After traveling extensively for four years on his own, he had an opportunity to change careers and move to Little Rock, AR in 1983 and work for Dyna\Reps, Inc.
Douthit Ace hardware
Baxter Springs, KS
1973 – 1977
Yep, Larry was the “helpful hardware man” as advertised on tv back then. This job prepared me for life around the house. I can fix just about anything I want around the house, from plumbing to electrical, you name it, and I learned it here.
I was a salesclerk, stock clerk, pipe cutter, we did it all. From the time the freight hit the loading dock until it was stocked and then sold and often carried out the door, I touched it.
It was an ole’ fashion hardware store that we often said, “we have it, if we can find it”. This wasn’t a new fancy hardware store all prettied up, this was the ole’ stuff on top of stuff but if you wanted it, we normally had it in stock for you.
Working through JR High and High School this was a perfect job. The owners Howard and June Douthit took me in like family, and it was a lot of fun. I learned so much from this job, things that I still use to this day around the house and helping friends.
Barco Five & Dime
Baxter Springs, KS
1971 – 1972
My first real job. I graduated from mowing lawns to entering the corporate world of being a stock clerk at the lock “dime store”.
I did all the normal stuff a kid on his first job was given to do. I swept the floors, washed the windows, took out the trash and on good days I got to put stock on the shelves.
Admitting I worked at a local “dime store” just dated me. Kids these days would say, huh?