Lars Fletre (June 22, 1904 – September 1977) was a prominent Norwegian-American sculptor.
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Lars Olavson Fletre was born in Vossestrand, Voss, Hordaland, Norway. He was the son of Ola Oddson Fletre and Kristine Olsdatter ytre Kvårmo.[1]
Lars Fletre immigrated to Chicago in 1923 and attended the technical night school at the Chicago Art Institute. He returned to Norway to marry Helen Svensson Fletre whom he met in Chicago. At one time, he worked at the Hadeland Glassverk factory in Jevnaker. He and his family returned to the United States in 1954, where he resided in Chicago.[2]
Both Lars Fletre and Helen Svensson Fletre were prominent members of the Chicago Norwegian colony from 1954 when he and his wife settled there with their 3 children in Logan Square.[3]
One of his more prominent works was a monument sculpted from granite for the fallen soldiers from the Fjord Regiment, which included soldiers from Voss, Sogn, Hardanger, Sunnfjord and Nordfjord. This memorial was unveiled at Bømoen, in Voss on August 1, 1948. Some of Fletre's other work includes restored buildings in Florence, Italy as well as work on the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Additional he worked on churches and missions in Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas.[4]