 The Promises
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Jack died Monday August 14 at 1:30 P.M.
When Jack was two, his mother took him to Ireland and left him to be raised by his grandmother and grandfather. He remained in Ireland until he was 12. Upon his return to the U.S. he lived in the section of NY City known as Hell’s Kitchen. His heavy Irish brogue resulted in many fights. As a teenager he hung around airports where he would hitch airplane rides with any pilot who would take him. He would land in some strange city and then hitch hike back home. He and a pal built an airplane out of parts from junked aircraft (Jennies from WWI). The plane was out of balance and so they hung a pipe wrench off one wing. He had never flown before but managed to get the thing off the ground without killing himself. He was an excellent athlete playing football in high school and was offered a college football scholarship but a subsequent knee injury made it impossible for him to accept it. At an early age he was an excellent golfer and won a driving contest at age eighteen and a sportswriter referred to Jack as ‘the kid from Hell’s Kitchen with the Park Avenue swing.’ He went to Parks Air College in St. Louis. He served a short stretch in the US Marines but was medically discharged because of his bad knee. He was hired by the Canadian Government as a flying instructor to train Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilots. In 1939 he joined the RCAF (he had to join under an assumed name because U.S. citizens were not allowed to enter the RCAF.) He was sent to England where he flew Spitfires in the Battle of London. It is of Jack and his fellow pilots that Churchill said ‘Never have so many owed so much to so few.’ Jack was shot down a five times but always managed to survive to fly again until the fifth time when he tried to save his aircraft and was injured so badly that he was medically discharged. All this happen before the United States had entered the war. He had to shake a medical morphine dependency cold turkey. While in the RCAF his uncle mentioned to his grandfather (an Irishman who had no love of the English) that John Francis was in the air force. His grandfather replied ‘which one’ rather hoping it was the German air force. He returned to the US in an upper body cast but was hired to fly fuel consumption tests on the naval aircraft know as the Corsair. He had to be lifted into the cockpit by means of a crane.He was bored with the routine flying and went to work at a radio station as a news announcer. He became a professional golfer and was sponsored by two physicians to enter the British Open. On the trip over on the Queen Mary he met a young lady and consequently did not show up for the trials or the tourney. It took him two years to pay back his sponsors. |
He married a number of times before finding Louise, the love of his life. In an early marriage he lived in the Hollywood area where he was the golf pro at the Culver City country club and gave golf lessons to many movie stars. He lived in the hills and was a neighbor to the film star Robert Taylor and the singer Nat King Cole. He left his wife and left California to settle in N.Y. City where he married again and owned and managed a driving range in the City. He also gave golfing lessons. He moved to Connecticut and managed a Cadillac dealership. He also owned a Beechcraft dealership selling aircraft. I do not know the chronology but one time a fellow fighter pilot approached Jack to fly four P-51 Mustang fighters to San Salvador. His friend made a deal with the husband of the daughter of the President. When they got there a coup had replaced the leadership and Jack and his friends barely made it out of the country. Jack moved to Miami where he owned three bars, one of which was a class restaurant, which Frank Sinatra and other stars would frequent while in Miami. While in Miami he also owned an air charter service and did some contract work for the CIA. He had a little too much to drink on one trip and was caught by the Cuban military while attempting to fly a number of the faculty of the Havana Medical School out of Cuba. He spent quite a while in a Cuban prison where he was beaten. After he and other Americans were traded for some Cubans being detained in the US he returned home and had to have extensive dental work performed to repair the damage inflicted by a vengeful guard. He moved to Pinehurst, NC and went into real estate where he did well. He built two houses in Pinehurst. While there he met newly widowed Louise and played as her partner in a golf tournament. After their marriage, when not in NC, they toured the world living in Paris for a few months on one occasion and in Spain for quite a long stay a different time. Recovery from alcoholism: Jack has been in AA for 25 years. One event near the time of his awakening occurred when he discovered a rash on his chest. When he asked Louise about it she said ‘Don’t you remember, one of your friends brought you home and after he left you collapsed in the driveway.’ Little 120 pound Louise had to get 230 pound Jack into the house so she tied a rope around him and dragged him inside leaving rope burns on his chest.
On one occasion while in a rehab he escaped and hired a cab driver
to take him to the airport. They stopped on the way to have a few
and the cabby took him to the wrong airport. Jack had arranged a
charter flight but at the other field. A Beechcraft was being warmed
up and the young worker left the plane. Jack jumped in it and just
about got away with stealing the plane but was apprehended. The
airplane owner was notified. He recognized Jack as a Beechcraft
dealer and agreed to fly Jack home if he would get help. Jack joined
AA and was active in spearheading a drive for an AA building, which
a number of businessmen purchased in Pinehurst. He started the 11th
Step Meeting in Pinehurst and also the one here in Palm Coast. He
also started the Guys and Dolls Saturday evening meeting here.
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