A to Z April Challenge: J is for Jack

“We need to get together more often and not at a funeral.” How many times have you and a cousin said that? Funerals are much like a family reunion. You can learn a lot about a family just by looking at who showed up. Using my grandparents’ guest books and sympathy cards, I’ll be exploring “Who came to the funeral?”

is for Jack E. Van Hyning. Jack and his wife Maxine attended the funerals of both my maternal grandfather Orvin Davis in 1963 and my grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis in 1990. Perhaps they remembered my grandparents when they lived in Shenandoah, but the Van Hynings were of the same generation as my uncle, so it’s possible they were friends with him more so than with my grandparents. Maybe they knew each other through their membership at Fields United Methodist Church.

Jack was the only child of Arthur and Evelyn Van Hyning of Akron, Ohio. In the 1920, 1930, and 1940 censuses, he was right there at home. In 1940 he was a salesman for a paper manufacturer just like his father. However, that same year, just a couple months after the census was taken, he married Maxine Hatfield of Shenandoah, Virginia.

So how did a Buckeye boy find a Southern gal in Virginia? Certainly his time as a student at Massanutten Military Academy must have provided an opportunity. The school is located in Woodstock, Virginia, about thirty-six miles from Maxine’s home. 

from the Massanutten Military Academy
yearbook 1936

Jack’s obituary on Ancestry.com must have been written by a family member who knew him well as the details are so personal:  his three children and numerous grandchildren, his love of sausage gravy, his enjoyment in feeding the birds, his career as a salesman of both insurance and dog food, his support of sports at James Madison University (Go Dukes!), and his service on the Town Council in Shenandoah.

But here are two more interesting bits of information found through GenealogyBank:

from GenealogyBank
Richmond Times Dispatch
March 14, 1937

Jack must have been a star athlete in school. In 1937, he was mentioned twice in a sports report about the South Atlantic Interscholastic basketball championship. 

In 1948, Jack was elected treasurer of the Barrie Flying Club in nearby Elkton, Virginia. The organization is dedicated to providing quality flight training for those wanting to fly light sport aircraft.  (What?  Elkton had a flight club?? Who knew?)

from GenealogyBank
Richmond Times Dispatch
January 21, 1948

Van Hyning tombstone
from Findagrave
photo courtesy JAC

Juggle your time and Jump, Jog, or Jaunt on over to the A to Z April Challenge for some Jovial Jottings of Journalists and Jokesters.

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.