Obituary: John Stanley Vaughn

John Stanley Vaughn

November 5, 1942- January 29, 2019 

He was the Grandson of Stanley & Florence Vaughn and the son of Jim & Jean Vaughn.  John was in the US Air Force and served in Alaska.  He was married to Clarice Jane Anderson for 28 years and they lived in Michigan.  John is retired and lives in the Vaughn cabin at Fish Lake.  John and Clarice had three children:

v  James Charles Vaughn: James was born on April 25, 1966. He currently lives in Las Vegas, NV.

v  Jay Bradley Vaughn: Jay was born on August 10, 1968 and passed away on December 21, 1985 in Michigan.

v  Jana Lynn Vaughn Tappa: Jana was born August 23, 1973 and married Scott Tappa in August 2003. Jana and Scott live in Iola, WI and have two sons. William Jay Tappa was born May 20, 2004 and Charles Edward Tappa was born on May 8, 2008.

From his dear Daughter, Jana Lynn Vaughn Tappa:

I’m very sad to let everyone know that my dad passed away on Tuesday. He was someone who made a lasting impression on a lot of people and as far as I know, he did not want a big funeral, but he had many friends in Washington and Upper Michigan as well as in Wisconsin where I live, and I feel like they'd want to know. My dad did not know he was sick—he passed away quickly and he did not suffer. That is about all he would have hoped for, I think. Because I love to write things down, I thought I would share a few of my favorite stories/facts about Johnny Vaughn for those that might be interested.

HE HELPED OTHERS

- In high school, he took me and some friends to the Ishpeming dance on New Year’s Eve, he picked everyone up, brought us to the dance and then drove 20 miles home. He turned around at 11:30 and came and got us after midnight. He said there were drunks and crazies on the road so he needed to be the one driving.
- In college (more than once), he brought friends from Detroit area or Grand Rapids home for Christmas break when they didn’t have a ride. For those not from Michigan, it was about a nine-hour drive one way. Grand Rapids was about 7, I think. He didn’t care. He thought people should be with their families at Christmas. He had the means, and so he helped without hesitance.
- My dad is the example that I learned from about helping people—but he had talents that made a big difference in people’s lives. He fixed plumbing, electricity, he put on roofs, decks, saunas. He was the one who they called when pipes froze or someone had been in an accident. He could do so many things and didn’t hesitate to help. As he saw me following in his footsteps in my own small way, he would often say, “You know, Banana, ‘No’ is a good answer too.” I'd answer in a cheeky manner, "You first!"
- When I worked at The NorthWind student newspaper in college, we had a scary moment where we couldn’t find the photographer or an extra camera and the governor was on campus—we had to get a photo. I called my dad, he came within minutes on his motorcycle—camera in hand—and brought me right up the driveway to the front doors of the building where the governor was. I ran in and immediately found the photographer who said, “Nice entrance.”

HE LOVED TO SING

- When we were kids, he would take a whole crew of us cousins to Marquette and he would sing "The Battle of New Orleans" (In 1814, we took a little trip…) he sang that so often, that when I eventually heard it on the radio, I was very upset that someone had "stolen" his song. My Aunt Carol set me straight after laughing for a really, really long time.
- He liked to sing, “She had kisses sweeter than wine …” which generally elicited a lot of groaning from the kids.
- We sang “The Ants go Marching” and military cadences that I found out later he edited for content. I discovered this when he started singing them to Will and Charlie and forgot to use the “G” version.
- He often sang, “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble…” he never once got the words right (even after I put it on his iPod) but he sang with confidence and a lot of heart.

LEARNING AND ADVENTURES

- My dad loved a lot of things and was pretty good at a lot of them too. He loved woodworking, building, he used his talents to figure out how to build us a deck with a herringbone pattern because I had seen one and thought it looked pretty neat. He built my kids a treehouse that has no support from the ground, it’s simply part of the tree.
- I was always amazed that his curiosity helped him truly understand how things worked. That’s why he was able to build my parents first house, he had helped build houses as a teenager and paid attention.
- In his youth, he struggled in school, and despite that, eventually became an avid reader, learning everything from woodworking to chicken farming. He went to Michigan Tech for an intense two years where he earned what was, at the time, the equivalent of an electrical engineering degree.
- He loved sewing and sent us aprons last Christmas with our favorite colors. He was especially proud that we found a Bucky Badger decal online to put on Scott’s apron.
- My dad liked to go to new places and never seemed that daunted by going alone. As a young airman at KI Sawyer in Gwinn, MI, he hitchhiked home to Seattle and back on multiple occasions. As a man close to 70, he left one November (in a rain/snow mix) on a motorcycle from Washington state. He rode the motorcycle as far south as Texas and Florida, and then came back north through Virginia and up to Wisconsin and Michigan, he visited friends and family along the way. He loved that Honda Shadow motorcycle and he looked pretty bad-ass on it.
-My whole life, if I called and said, “I need help,” he would say, “Let me get a few things in order and I’ll be there.” This was true when I lived in Saginaw and he lived in Marquette, when I lived in Wisconsin and he lived in Marquette, and it was even true when I lived in Wisconsin and he lived in Washington state. He came out from Washington–hauling all necessary tools—to help finish our basement, build our deck, build the kids a treehouse, help with our kitchen remodel, and that is just what I can list off the top of my head.

I loved my dad so much and we had so much fun together. I will miss him so much but am so grateful for all the years we had together. So many stories and memories to cherish. 💕