John can trace his roots back twelve generations in America to Jamestown, where his ancestor Francis Bushnell settled in 1715. His family in Jamestown were glassmakers and two centuries later, his great-uncle Chapman Root was owner of the Root Glass Company and made the first coca-cola bottle. John always hoped his great-uncle would leave him a coca-cola franchise but unfortunately, it never happened.
He moved to Kalispell, Montana where his wife’s family owned a store and John opened up his own men’s store and ran it for four years, referring to that time as one of the most fun career experiences in his life. He loved Kalispell with its fishing and hunting. In 1950, the family moved back to California so John could go back to school to pursue his music with the goal of writing for the studios.
He went to work as a page boy for NBC, the oldest ever page at 30. But after awhile, school and work got to be just too much with a young family, so he gave up music school and went to work fulltime at NBC as a censor where he spent the next six years and says he has plenty of material to write a book (we can only imagine). In the early days, he worked on such shows as Stairway to the Stars. He wrote a couple of scripts for Sea Hunt and Science Fiction Theater and in 1959 he was promoted to the program department and became one of five or six managers in the department of film programs, with the responsibility of supervising program making. Wagon Train was among the shows he worked on and he remained at NBC till 1970. At that point, he went to selling industrial tooling for milling, tooling, and shaping metal in Cerritos, where he remained until he retired in 1985.
John and his first wife had 3 children, two girls and a boy who have since blessed him with 8 grandchildren (7 boys and 1 girl) and 2 great-grandsons. His oldest daughter Constance is now 62 and lives in Santa Monica. His second daughter lives in L.A., and his son is in the restaurant business in Bend, Oregon and his daughter-in-law is a championship equestrian. John notes that his family is known for having boys – in each of three recent generations, one family has four sons and no daughters. After 24 years of marriage, John and his first wife divorced in the late sixties.
He met his second wife Verne through a friend in Montana and they were married for 33 years before her death five years ago. They lived in Whittier and she was administrative manager for one of the largest real estate firms in the country before he convinced her to retire too. They traveled a lot through the U.S. (including Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico in their many years together, often for his naval squadron reunions. They moved to Blacklake in 1998.
John’s past-times have always involved music and he is proud that one of his daughters is part of an award winning Sweet Adelines group. John still plays piano and sings, but has given up some of his other activities. John is a past Elk and Lion and was the first president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Kalispell. He did a lot of tent camping when the family was young as well as hunting and fishing when they lived in Montana. Many years ago he golfed, but deciding he didn’t have time for the sport gave it up and played tennis instead until he turned 70.
His most recent sport has been lawn bowling, which he has been doing for 3 years and just recently finished a tournament where his team placed second. It’s obvious he enjoys his family and his music and he has been a welcome addition to the Gyro family. Next time you’re visiting with John, get him to tell you some of his stories about the early days of TV, when he says it was a lot more fun than it probably is now.
