John Bankhead

Our daddy, John Bankhead, has been looking for Mama a good while now. She’s been gone almost three years, and on Friday, November 11, Daddy finally found her again. He loved Mama with all his heart, and he loved me (Stewart) and my brother, Scott, too. He was a rock, standing firm for all of us his whole life long. He loved going to Scott’s ball games, and he enjoyed coming to my plays too. He brought us up right, teaching us the value of work at a young age. He bought me a lawn mower when I was in the second grade, and I started cutting Uncle Billy’s grass. Then it was onward and upward. Scott soon joined me in the yard cutting business. I think Daddy was proud. We kept on working from then on. Daddy taught us his work ethic by example, working all the overtime he could get and doing chores when he was home. He sent me and my brother to college, one of us to a private college and the other to an out-of-state school. And he and Mama paid for both, never taking out a loan and never complaining. Daddy always stood behind us, no matter what; always ready to lend a helping hand. He was like that. When he saw anyone who needed help he’d help, with money, with time, with whatever he had. He raised huge gardens for years and gave out tomatoes and squash, beans and okra and everything else, like he was the Jolly Green Giant. When we were young, he took us square dancing and to play Rook. He took us camping at the lake and in the mountains. He made sure we had a vacation at the beach every summer, and later on, he bought a beach house that I’ve enjoyed for years now. He took station wagon’s full of young people to Friday night football games, and he kept on going and rooting for the Golden Lions long after Scott and I both had graduated. I always had cats, and he said he couldn’t stand a cat, but one cold morning my cat, Lindy, got killed when a car motor cranked. I saw Daddy carrying Lindy to bury her with big tears rolling down his face. One Christmas, I begged for rabbits. Daddy said no, but when I got up on Christmas morning, I followed a string through the house, outside, and up into the woods, where I found my new rabbits in a hutch he had built himself. He did everything, from laying flooring to hanging wallpaper. His heart was bigger than anybody’s I knew. He took on responsibility after responsibility. When he was fourteen he took care of his paraplegic brother, who had been shot during WWII. He was stationed in Washington and served his country during the Korean conflict. He cared for his mama when she had hardening of the arteries and for his daddy during his last years. He took care of me and Scott our whole lives. Then he took on Gracie, Stuart, and his grandchildren, Anna Grace and Will. He loved his nieces and nephews, his neighbors, and his friends. He knew almost everybody in town. Everywhere he went he’d meet folks he knew, and he was known to strike up conversations with complete strangers, who didn’t stay strangers long. And he was dearly loved by so many in return. Now, we’re glad he knows for sure just how much. Daddy may not have been rich or well-known, but he was an important man to many, and the most important man in our lives.

Funeral service will be held on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 11:00 am in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church with Rev. Tony Tench officiating. Burial will follow at Sunset Cemetery. The family will receive friends an hour before the service from 10:00 am until 11:00 am. in the sanctuary. 

Memorials can be made to First Baptist Church 120 N Lafayette Street, Shelby NC or Hospice Cleveland County, 921 Wendover Heights Drive, Shelby NC 28150.