Longtime Anna Maria, Manatee plumbing entrepreneur dies

Mike LaPensee, who started LaPensee Plumbing with his wife, was successful in part due to his connection to the community, a former Manatee County commissioner says.

By Elizabeth King
| 5:40 p.m. July 8, 2024
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Manatee-Sarasota

The co-founder of a local plumbing company who was known for making friends with everyone he met has died. James Michael “Mike” LaPensee of Anna Maria died June 22. He was 79.

He was a “true islander," former Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore says, describing him as the “never-met-a-stranger type guy, and I think that’s what made him successful.”

LaPensee was born April 10, 1945. He grew up in Michigan and moved in 1967 to Florida, where he lived on Anna Maria Island for more than 55 years. He and Whitmore moved to the island around the same time, she says, and they had their children about the same time as well.