EMMETT SAUNDERS

1927 - 2020

Emmett John Saunders October 19, 1927 - December 25, 2020 On Christmas Day-December 25, 2020, just before midnight-John Saunders (known variously as husband, Dad, Papa John, Tubby, brother, uncle, and friend) died peacefully in his sleep, while home on hospice. He was loved by many, devoted to his wife and family, fond of sharing crackpot theories and Pepsi Colas with visitors to his house, equal parts rascal and genius. John had a joke for every occasion and a kind word for everyone he met. He lived a life of laughter and good cheer.

John was born on October 19, 1927 in Tacoma Park, MD, to Emmett Paul and Hiltrude (Fisher) Saunders. John's father died when John was still a young boy; his widowed mother raised him and his three siblings in Arlington, VA. At birth, John weighed 12 pounds and was two feet long. Christened "Jack Dempsey" by the nurses in the maternity ward, he was famously sent home swaddled in a blanket, as no onesie would fit him. He grew up independent, roving the neighborhoods with his dog Mike and an "Our Gang"-like cast of friends. A natural entrepreneur and salesman, he was the top newspaper delivery boy for the Washington Star, and with the start of World War II, drove a mail truck for the U.S. Postal Service while still a high school student. Years later, he could recall the workings of the trucks' double-clutch gearboxes and marveled that he and a bunch of 16-year-old boys hadn't managed to get the entire USPS dismantled.

Throughout his life, John marched to his own drum. "That's right, John," his mother admonished him, "Everyone in the world is out of step but you!" His boyhood money-making schemes were plentiful, and some perhaps,stretched the bounds of the strictly ethical: John recounted making money from deposits on glass bottles at a local drugstore, which he sourced from the stacks of previously deposited glass bottles behind the very store. He earned extra money by buying broken-down Model T Fords and repairing them with a friend to sell at a profit. He convinced every house on his paper route (over one hundred customers) to take the evening edition, which not only earned him an extra 5 cents per week per paper but spared him from making deliveries at the crack of dawn.

John took great pride in his dismal academic record and claimed to have graduated from Washington & Lee High School ranked 333 out of a class of 330 (three classmates with better GPAs having flunked out in the final semester). He liked to say that he graduated "negative third" in his class. Due to the happy fortune of birthdates, John turned 18 just two months after the end of World War II. He enlisted and served two uneventful years with the U.S. Army in Panama. His heroics included mastering Morse code and eating 18 eggs in a single sitting. His best friend in the Army was Larry King who later became the celebrated playwright. Once, while on leave in New Orleans, John and Larry performed a spontaneous jazz session (John on drums) that filled a vacant club with revelers. Never fond of pomp or excess work, John turned down an offer of promotion within the Army.

After an honorable discharge, John enrolled at the University of Miami under the GI Bill, where he received his bachelor's degree in business. He would hitchhike to campus and back home again, to his mother's house in Arlington. Years later, he would share his tips on hitchhiking with his sons: "Never go with someone who will take you halfway. Wait for someone going all the way to where you want to go!" While never excessively academic, John possessed a fierce intellect and was inspired at Miami by the field of motion and time study. He applied its tenets throughout his life, always striving "to work smarter, not harder" and to find a creative approach to business that his competitors had not considered.

After college, John turned his considerable charm and charisma to sales-starting out with silver and china, and later real estate. At his peak, John was the top realtor in Virginia. In a single calendar month, he listed 31 separate houses in the D.C. suburbs. John founded his own real estate agency, White House Realty, and enjoyed terrific success. White House was the first 100% commission real estate company (John's innovation), and at one point, he had three of the top 10 agents in Virginia working for him.

On November 21, 1964, John married Jacqueline Meyer. On their first date, he had won her affection with a joke: "Two fleas walk out of a bar, and one says to the other, "Should we walk or take a dog?'" John and Jacqueline raised five sons (Steve, Chris, Tom, John, Scott) and one daughter (Sue). "One daughter is worth five boys!" John used to boast.

John retired in his 50s and spent the next four decades enjoying life and sharing his favorite bromides with his children-on speeders: "They're late for their accident"; on envy: "Envy immediately turns to hate"; on gifts (presumably after opening his hundredth pair of socks): "Don't give me anything I can't eat"; on alcohol: "They should call it "personality medicine'"; on sports: "If you take the shot, you might not score. If you don't take the shot you definitely won't score"; on newborns: "Massage them and exercise their arms and legs, it will help them grow up to be great athletes." A devout Catholic, John was especially devoted to the Virgin Mary. "Everything I have in life I owe to the Blessed Mother. She has always looked after me." He would often muse aloud, while driving along residential roads: "Just think, behind every window, someone is living a life-wouldn't you just love to know everything about them, all their friends and all their stories!"

The Saunders house was a destination for trick or treaters on Halloween. Growing up during the Depression, John's dreams were of candy. As an adult Halloween was a chance for him to give away legendary amounts of treats and gold and silver dollars. Each year for Halloween he would get rolls of dollar coins and put them in a "treasure chest" and every kid who came by could have a handful of candy and a few coins. John loved telling the kids about how he found the treasure chest washed up on the beach from the wreckage of an old pirate ship.

In his later years, John's greatest pride came from the achievements of his wife (the celebrated artist Jacqueline Saunders), his children, and, most especially, his grandchildren.

John was preceded in death by his father, Emmett Paul; his mother, Hiltrude; his sisters, Mary Turner and Ruth Ann Kernan; and his brother Hugh. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline; his six children: Stephen and his wife Gilda, Christopher, Thomas, Suzanne and her husband Pascal Bouvier, John and his wife Jessie, and Scott and his wife Mandy; and his six grandchildren: Marina, Gianna, Annabel, Sullivan, Joelle, and Annelise.

John was a product of a grander, distant era. With his light gone, the world is a dimmer place. Memories of the man shine, but perhaps not so brightly as the man himself. Funeral mass and burial was at St Mary of Sorrow's Roman Catholic church in Fairfax VA at 11 a.m. on January 5 2021.John was a product of a grander, distant era. With his light gone, the world is a dimmer place. Memories of the man shine, but perhaps not so brightly as the man himself. Funeral mass and burial was at St Mary of Sorrow's Roman Catholic church in Fairfax VA at 11 a.m. on January 5 2021.