In Memory

John Landures VIEW PROFILE

John Landures

Buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery 



 
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02/05/16 04:27 PM #3    

Marsha Draper (Fryer)

Greg, thank you for the amazing tribute about John!!  I feel like I know more about him now than I ever thought I would!  He accomplished so much.. What an amazing friend we had.  Great memories of "Cigar"!!


02/05/16 05:14 PM #4    

Sandra McCann (Poulsen)

Wow! Thanks for adding this, Greg! Remarkable! Sandi McCann Poulsen


02/06/16 09:42 AM #5    

Jim Saley

Just weeks before he passed, Richard Thomas and I went to lunch with John. If ever there was a class act, it was John. He treated everyone like they were his very best friend. With all of his accomplishments, there was never an air of pretentiousness, only kindness and concern about you. I feel like I am a better person because I knew John. He was one of the very best!


02/06/16 02:12 PM #6    

John Oldham

Greg -

Thnaks for this post.  I especially enjoyed the extract from the Rolly & Wells column. John actually went to Irving Jr. High with many of our class.  He was my friend from Garfield Elementary through high school and college and beyond.

Memories include:

Playing table tennis in the basement of his house.  I noticed one or two small, narrow holes in the wall.  I asked him about them, and he said he had made them with the edge of his paddle in anger over losing a match.  No holes were added after our competition.

During junior high years, he and I and some others would play 'over-the-line' (a baseball derivative) on the playground at Garfield.  At the back of left field was a fifteen-foot chain link fence, with 1500 East on the other side.  It was always fun to hit a ball over the fence.  I did it sometimes, John more often, Doug Howard about 75% of the time.  Sometimes you'd hit a passing car.  On the other side of the street was a five-foot retaining wall marking the west edge of a long, sloping lawn which ran up to a nice home, the foundation of which sat about thirty feet higher than street level.  During one afternoon game, John hit a ball over the fence, over the road, and onto the roof of the house.  Amazing.  I was reminded of that during the state championship baseball game, which John pitched, and which Highland won in 1966, when John came withing six inches of hitting a ball out of the old Derks Field in center field at the 400 foot sign.

I ran into him a few months before his death.  He told me he had just returned from Greece, having played on an all-star Greek-American basketball team, which had toured the Greece.  He had a great time. 

Some months later, my second child was born in the early morning hours of Dec. 22.  Later that day, I went to my mother's house for dinner.  While reading the newspaper, I happened upon John's obituary.  Seeing it was like getting sucker-punched in the solar plexus.  What a shock!  It took much of the joy our of what, for me, had been a wonderful day.

What a wonderful man and friend.  With a lovely wife and young daughter, I don't know anyone who had more to live for than John Landures.  Rest in peace, my friend.


02/06/16 03:44 PM #7    

Marsha Draper (Fryer)


02/06/16 06:23 PM #8    

Greg Fortin

To John Oldham - Thanks for the Uinta / Irving correction.  I must have been thinking of the Uinta Montains.  Also, thanks for the additional great stories about John Landures.

To Marsha Draper - What a cool pic of "Cigar".  Lean, Mean Slam Dunkin' Machine.  So full of life.

Also, I searched the Tribune, Deseret News, and Salt Lake County records for a copy of his obituary.  No luck.  However, I have a slueth friend in SLC looking for a copy so we can post it.

Feb 15th - - I have sent a request for assistance to the Sons of Pericles. Maybe the kept such records.  So far I have not heard back from them.  Also, my slueth has come up empty.  She suggested a personal visit to the main library that may have kept micro-fish copies of all the Tribune newspapers.  The search will continue.


02/09/16 12:10 PM #9    

Laurel Parker (Rohlfing)

Thanks for all of the additional information about John. I didn't know him well and I appreciate getting a peek into his life. His accomplishments are amazing!! What a man!


02/12/16 11:06 AM #10    

Richard L. (Rick) Pyper

I am posting this comment in four places regarding our HHS championship basketball team.  It is one of the inexplicable coincidences (?) that so many of the athletes who played on that team have been removed from this "mortal coil" so early in their lives.  Their efforts and performances on the court gave joy to us all.  I remember traveling back (from Provo?) to SLC after one of those games (the championship?) with a car full of Highlanders celebrating the accomplishments of our basketball heroes.  They will always be remembered for such wonderful, happy moments.  RIP guys.


04/06/16 09:47 PM #11    

John Kilmer

John I miss you. Someday we will play ball again.Keep throwing that curve. John Kilmer


04/07/16 10:07 AM #12    

Rebecca Rae (Oberlin)

John was such an accomplished young man. I was not aware of all of the things he managed to achieve in his short life. I admired him very much and even had a "secret crush" on him during our high school years. Of couse he didn't know it as we had no classes together and I did not have the opportunity to become acquainted with him. So I just admired him from afar. I am happy for him that he was able to achieve so much in so little time and that he had found happiness with a wife and child.  It is sad to think of all the good things he most probably would have accomplished had he been gifted with a longer life. A beautiful human being who will always be missed by those who knew him.


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