John P. Pool
January 10, 1922 - March 31, 2014
Obituary
John P. Pool
John P. Pool passed away peacefully from natural causes on March 31st. John was born on January 10, 1922 to Sarah and Ellis Pool in the small central Missouri town of Boonville. He was the oldest boy and therefore had a lot on his shoulders right from the start. His father, who served honorably in World War One, gave John the middle name of Pershing In honor of the commanding general, “Black Jack” Pershing. So in many ways it was preordained that John would end up in the service of his country.
John grew up to be slender, athletic, accomplished and seemingly always well-dressed. John and his three brothers and four sisters made the Pool household active, busy and playful. There was Noah and Hazel, Nadine and Ernie, Richard, Gertrude and Margaret. Life on a farm in central Missouri during the depression was tough, hard work, but everyone pulled together. It was there that John learned the values of family, hard work and integrity.
By his own admission John was not terribly enamored with working on a farm. But regardless, things changed with the advent of World War II. The war took him off the farm and because of all of his experience driving trucks and tractors he was instantly selected to position of leadership in the unit that later became famous as the Red Ball Express.
He arrived in England just-in-time to be involved in the Normandy invasion of France, where he was about to participate in events that would change the course of history.
In the summer of 1944 US Army units were racing across France at breakneck speed in pursuit of the German army. But the only way to keep that pursuit going was to supply the army with everything from gasoline to ammunition & food. All of those supplies had to be carried on trucks covering hundreds of miles from the beaches to the German border. The equation was pretty simple: If there was no ammunition, no gas or no food, there would also be no victory. It was all dependent on the predominantly African American truckers called the Red Ball Express. One of the men who was in charge of keeping those trucks running was Sgt. John Pool. He was wounded in battle and fought for his country in World War Two and Korea and retired from the army in the 1964.
A chance meeting on a train led John to meet Barbara Thomas, and in 1946 they married. Several years later John and his new wife headed back to Germany for occupation duty and that is when they turned from a couple into a family. First there was Yvonne, better-known as Dee Dee and several years later their son Steven was born. He is currently the chief weathercaster at KOMO TV in Seattle.
From there John briefly worked for Boeing and then entered the financial services business, providing insurance and investments to customers around the Puget Sound. He and Barbara also founded a construction company and developed real estate.
John had a wonderful 92 years of life and a marriage that lasted for 68 years. He taught his children that two wrongs do not make a right and that they should always conduct themselves with dignity, pride, hard work and integrity. He is survived by his wife and two children, two brothers and three sisters, numerous grand and great grandchildren and host of loving nieces & nephews. He will be laid to rest on April 12th at 11:00am with full military honors at Bonney-Watson Washington Memorial Park in SeaTac.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the scholarship fund at the First AME church in Seattle.
To John’s family, pleae accepty my heart felt condolences. Many have found comfort through the pages of God’s word the bible. We pray for God’s Kingdom to come and many do not know it is God’s government we are praying for. Some of the comforts that this will bring is the reuniting with our loved ones again (John 5:28,29 Acts 24:15) We have a wonderful hope for the future but we need to know what Gods will is. For more comfort and information visit the website jw.org