John David Lawrence

John D. Lawrence passed away on May 22, 2014 in Visalia, CA, the day after celebrating his 90th birthday. John was born on his parents’ dairy south of Corcoran, CA to John and Carolina Lawrence, and in his own words “grew up during the heyday of Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Billy Mitchell and Wrong-Way Corrigan and became forever fascinated with anything that flew…..I didn’t fly during the war but in 1946 I bored a lot of holes in our local skies, culminating in 2000 when with Parkinson’s disease and such I had to hang it up”. John was the third of 6 children, and his stories of growing up on the ranch were of hard work since age 4 mixed with having a lot of fun with his sisters. John graduated Corcoran High School in 1941, attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and was a lifetime dairyman and farmer south of Corcoran. On May 30, 1950 he married Lena Espinola of Hanford, and together they had 5 children. In his retirement, John moved with Lena to Oaks Estate mobile home community in Tulare to start the next chapter of their lives which was filled with potlucks, Bunko, and the Central Valley Parkinson's Support Group. In addition, John used his trilingual skills in English, Spanish and Portuguese to volunteer for 4 years at the Tulare Adult School to teach English as a second language. John had a keen sense of humor and loved telling a good joke. John was predeceased by his wife Lena of 61 years, infant sister Eva Lawrence, sister Carrie Mehaffey, daughter Charmaine Ferreira and daughter-in-law Karen Lawrence. John is survived by his sisters Mary Brause of Los Osos, Eva Lloyd of Cypress and Rosie Nearn of Visalia, 2 sons David of Visalia and John (wife Vickie) of Visalia, daughters Danielle (husband Alex Stagner) of Menlo Park and Jeannine (husband Scott Angell) of Los Altos, many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. The family would like to thank the staff at Tulare Nursing and Rehabilitation and Westgate Gardens for their kind and loving care. Donations in John’s memory can be made to the UCLA Foundation/PEG Study, and sent to the Central Valley Parkinson’s Support Group at P.O. Box 7314, Visalia, CA 93290. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 19 at the Salser & Dillard Funeral Chapel, 127 E. Caldwell Ave, Visalia, CA, with a reception to follow at Visalia Community Church of Christ, 3838 South Court Street.

John David Lawrence

May 21, 1924 - May 22, 2014