It’s so hard for me to write about my first husband, John Henry Harris, Jr.  He was in Vietnam in 1969 and was killed there a little more than 6 months after being deployed there.  John loved people and sports, but most of all Our Heavenly Father.  If there was a fire, he was right there; someone having car trouble, he would stop and help; kids playing ball, he was showing them what to do.  Johnny loved fishing and crabbing.  He loved the South.  John was born in Greeley, NE, a very small town of 350 people.  (If you blinked your eyes you would have missed it.)  He dearly loved his parents, Harry & Alta; and his brother and sisters: Tommy, who lives in Duncan, NE; Pam, who lives in Houston, TX; and Janet who resides in Spring, TX.  

John’s dad, Harry Harris, traveled into the Deep South to work at the NASA Missile Test Site for a welding job in Picayune, Mississippi.  After John graduated his dad asked him to come join him and said he would send John to welding school.  His first job was laying steel on the interstate.  Before John went down South, his grandfather, Dad Harris, left him some money and he bought a 1960 white Chevy Impala.  He loved that car and kept it in great condition. 

 The first time I met John he was at my neighbor’s house playing baseball.  I was invited over.  He asked me out, but I told him that he would have to meet my parents.  My dad was not too happy because John was from Nebraska.  They wanted me to marry someone from my hometown.  We dated for two years.  John loved the South and told my parents he would live in the Deep South.  He made my family very happy.  Dad and Mom loved him like a son and he loved them.  John joined the Marine Corp.  He finished Basic Training and we married Nov. 26, 1966. He was my true love.   We had a very short honeymoon weekend on the Gulf coast.  John was stationed in Jacksonville, North Carolina.  We had a wonderful two years and a beautiful girl, Michelle Elaine.  John was a wonderful dad.  He said “if my friends could see me now they wouldn’t believe it.”

 John patched helicopters.  He had me learn each kind of copter by sound.  We knew he would have to go to ‘Nam because his work was in great need.  It was so hard the day he came home with his Orders.  My heart fell and I could hardly breathe.  We had a wonderful Christmas together with my family.  I was pregnant with my second daughter, Charlotte Reneé.  I sent John many pictures of her.  I remember when John left for Vietnam - Jan. 13, 1969.  Michelle was sleeping in her crib and he looked and said not to wake her; that he wanted to remember her sleeping peacefully.  He was killed the 27th of July.  

 Michelle Elaine was named after my mother.  She is a nurse, School Nurse and works for a doctor in Grand Island, NE.  She married Randy Wood from Greeley, NE.  They have a beautiful daughter, Ragan Michelle.  She loves plays and sports.  Also Michelle has a Siberian Husky named Shy.

 Charlotte Reneé was named by her dad, John.  It was his favorite name.  She lives in Stuart, NE and works at the Nursing Home in Stuart.  Her husband, Dave Jarman is from Chambers, NE.  They have two children, Brooke Nicole and Conner David.  Brooke Nicole is 13 years old, beautiful and talented.  Brooke loves animals, especially dogs and owns a Cocker spaniel named Princess.  Her interests are Girl Scouts and 4-H.

 Conner David is 9 years old, very athletic and smart.  He loves football and fishing.  John loved the same.  If John were alive I could see them at ball games and in a boat fishing every chance they could.