John Lindsay Marr

John Lindsay Marr, 94, born on March 4, 1921, in Toronto, Canada, passed away November 26, 2015. He resided in Lakewood, California, at the time of his passing.
Growing up during the depression, his family moved a number of times crisscrossing between L.A., Glendale and Long Beach. He graduated from Hoover High School in Glendale, and soon he and a lifelong friend signed up for the Civilian Conservation Corp., earning a dollar day, two-thirds of which went back to their parents. Given a choice between Mammoth Lakes in the High Sierras or Death Valley, John chose the desert and they worked all day building roads in the hot summer sun.
When World War II broke out, John enlisted the U.S. Navy on June 11, 1940 and by that fall was assigned to the USS Boise, a light cruiser that saw lots of action in the Pacific Theater as well as stints in Sicily and North Africa. The Boise participated in the Guadalcanal campaign and later – as part of the 7th Fleet – she took part in the invasion of Leyte Gulf, and for a time had General Douglas MacArthur onboard.
After five years in combat service overseas, John was diagnosed with TB and confined to a sanatorium in the Elysian Park area of L.A. for the next few years. Afterwards, he graduated from Los Angeles State University and landed a teaching job for Department of Defense schools in Tokyo Japan. It was there he met his future wife, a young JAL stewardess named Masami Nakanishi. John and Masami married in 1960, and relocated back to Southern California where John taught in the LAUSD school system for the next 30 years. In his spare time, he published light verse and magazine feature articles. John loved Dixeland jazz, travel, golf, the Boston Celtics, the San Francisco Giants, and Notre Dame football.