John Anthony Henneberger
John Anthony Henneberger was born on September 4, 1923 in Mount Carmel, Illinois, the youngest child of Lawrence Francis Henneberger and Elmima van Dyke Utter Henneberger. He had two brothers, Francis James, born in 1910 and Robert Lawrence, born in 1913 and a sister, Virginia, born in 1912. His father was a successful businessman serving as a president of an ice and storage company and president of a bank and trust company.
John attended St. Mary’s Elementary School, Mt. Carmel High School and Culver Military Academy. He was a student at the University of Notre Dame in 1941 and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he transferred to Indiana University where he joined the Army ROTC with a goal of joining the Army Air Corps. John graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. degree in government and In November of 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corp. He flew the P-51 Mustang, a long-range, single-seat fighter bomber. As a pilot of a fighter bomber, he cheated death many times, but cheated death again in his twenties when he was involved in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer truck. That accident left him paralyzed for six months.
After the war, John joined with his brother Bob and opened a popular Sports Center store on the main street of Mt. Carmel. The business sold not only sports and scouting equipment, bikes, trains, toys, dolls, guns and boats, but many of the major appliances that had been in short supply during the war. In the 1950s, they sold the store and John went to work with his father at Henneberger Services, Ice & Fuel Company, the oldest coal and home fuel distributor in Indiana.
In 1956, John met a young lady from Kentucky, Freida Bleidt Lawrence, who had moved to Mt. Carmel to teach in the local high school. Freida had received her B. S. degree in business education from Murray State College and taught business classes at the high school. He proposed to her just three weeks after they met and they were married on June 22, 1957 in the parsonage of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. John and Freida were married for 60 years at the time of his death.
In 1968, John’s father retired from the Security Bank & Trust Company of Mt. Carmel, a bank that he had co-founded and run for many years. Upon his father’s retirement, John joined the bank’s board of directors and went on to become president, CEO and chairman of the board. He served for 27 years with the bank before his retirement.
John was a proud and occasionally loud conservative. He often stayed up late discussing politics with his siblings. He chaired many local GOP committees and was active in and passionate about the right-to-life movement. His favorite president was Ronald Reagan whom he had met when he was a student at Notre Dame when Reagan was starring in the movie, “Knute Rockne, All –American”.
John and Freida were the parents of three children. They had two daughters, Melinda Bleidt Henneberger, born in 1958 and Joane Drake Henneberger, born in 1961. Their only son, John Lawrence Henneberger, who was born in 1963, was killed at the age of 16 in a motorcycle accident.
John died on July 18, 2017 in Evansville, Indiana.
John attended St. Mary’s Elementary School, Mt. Carmel High School and Culver Military Academy. He was a student at the University of Notre Dame in 1941 and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he transferred to Indiana University where he joined the Army ROTC with a goal of joining the Army Air Corps. John graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. degree in government and In November of 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corp. He flew the P-51 Mustang, a long-range, single-seat fighter bomber. As a pilot of a fighter bomber, he cheated death many times, but cheated death again in his twenties when he was involved in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer truck. That accident left him paralyzed for six months.
After the war, John joined with his brother Bob and opened a popular Sports Center store on the main street of Mt. Carmel. The business sold not only sports and scouting equipment, bikes, trains, toys, dolls, guns and boats, but many of the major appliances that had been in short supply during the war. In the 1950s, they sold the store and John went to work with his father at Henneberger Services, Ice & Fuel Company, the oldest coal and home fuel distributor in Indiana.
In 1956, John met a young lady from Kentucky, Freida Bleidt Lawrence, who had moved to Mt. Carmel to teach in the local high school. Freida had received her B. S. degree in business education from Murray State College and taught business classes at the high school. He proposed to her just three weeks after they met and they were married on June 22, 1957 in the parsonage of the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. John and Freida were married for 60 years at the time of his death.
In 1968, John’s father retired from the Security Bank & Trust Company of Mt. Carmel, a bank that he had co-founded and run for many years. Upon his father’s retirement, John joined the bank’s board of directors and went on to become president, CEO and chairman of the board. He served for 27 years with the bank before his retirement.
John was a proud and occasionally loud conservative. He often stayed up late discussing politics with his siblings. He chaired many local GOP committees and was active in and passionate about the right-to-life movement. His favorite president was Ronald Reagan whom he had met when he was a student at Notre Dame when Reagan was starring in the movie, “Knute Rockne, All –American”.
John and Freida were the parents of three children. They had two daughters, Melinda Bleidt Henneberger, born in 1958 and Joane Drake Henneberger, born in 1961. Their only son, John Lawrence Henneberger, who was born in 1963, was killed at the age of 16 in a motorcycle accident.
John died on July 18, 2017 in Evansville, Indiana.
John and Freida Lawrence Henneberger
LINEAGE: (John Anthony Henneberger was the husband of Freida Bleidt Lawrence. Freida is the daughter of Clarence Colley and Jettie Bleidt Lawrence, granddaughter of James Robert and Lucy Rebecca Mize Lawrence and great-granddaughter of William Allen and Margaret Jane Thomas Lawrence. Margaret was the fourth child of Stanley and Emily Ann Light Thomas. Stanley was the second child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas. Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas. Mary was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)
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