John Vanhooser

John was born on the family farm, just off the New Douglas Road in Madison Co, IL.  In addition to the dairy farm, he worked for Moorman Feeds and in the Alhambra elevator in the mid 1940's. He loved playing pinochle, croquet, working in his garden, and smoking cigars.  After he left the farm he and Rhoda moved to 518 E.Olive St. in Staunton where he lived until his death.

Well known for his sense of humor (one daughter-in-law remembers him with a "wicked twinkle in his eye") and his story telling, he seldom seemed to be without a smile.

Always independent, when the county threatened to take Homer and Jack away from John after the death of their mother, Goldie, John responded by threatening to "meet them at the road to the farm with a shotgun"  the boys remained with the family.  John raised the boys by himself for five years before he married Rhoda.

When Homer had to have a government security clearance while he was with the U.S. Army in Washington D.C., "government men" came to the house to ask John some questions, John refused to talk to them until he talked to Homer.  He called Homer and asked him if he was in some sort of trouble, and Homer told him to just answer the questions!

John was associated with the Alhambra Grain & Feed Co. and a director of Staunton Memorial Hospital, he also worked for Moorman.  He once served as a tax collector for Olive Township in Madison Co IL and was a trustee for the Olive Family Cemetery.
Several times when we were visiting, he would take me to the cemetery and tell me stories about the people who were buried there.  He is directly responsible for my early interest in genealogy. 

As a child, I remember getting up early in the morning and having "coffee"  (a cup of warm milk with a tiny bit of coffee and a lot of sugar) with Grampa and then going out to the hen house to gather eggs. He had huge hands, I can remember him holding 6 eggs in his hand at a time.   I also remember sitting in his lap while he played pinochle with the adults and going to the store with him in his Chevy.  He would usually give me a nickle or dime to buy candy and then tell me not to let Grandma (Rhoda) know about it.  And we played croquet...always we played croquet; the yard was a huge croquet field most of the time we were there, and the whole family joined in

According to my Dad  John could "swear with the best of them" and had quite a temper but I don't ever recall seeing him angry and certainly never heard him swear, other than an occasional "damn."

My strongest memories of him are of a huge grin, a constant cigar (outside of course) and big loving hugs.