John Lewis Wallace

John Lewis Wallace passed into the arms of Jesus on January 26, 2021 at the age of 89. He was the son of Oscar and Marie Wallace and was born September 24, 1931 in Kansas City, MO and raised in Blue Springs, MO. His loving wife, Marion Diane Edwards Wallace, whom he was married to for 53 years, precedes him in death. He lived in Phoenix for 41 years and attended Reformed Living Bible Church, Scottsdale, AZ. He is survived by his five children, Marion L. Smith, Waterford, MI, (Spouse, Robert J. Smith), Emily R. Gesell, Glendale, AZ (Spouse, Terry L. Gesell), Preston M. Wallace, Phoenix, AZ, Todd R. Wallace, Peoria, AZ (Spouse, Ronda S. Wallace), and Stephen L. Wallace, Goodyear, AZ, eleven grandchildren Andrew, Gwen, Gretchen, Gaylen, Brittany, Caitlyn (deceased), Brendan, Michael, Christian, Marquis, Mason and Emma and seven great grandchildren, Jaron, Jesse, Arthur, Easton, Simeon, Malcolm, and Ansel, brothers Charles E. Wallace, Blue Springs, MO (deceased), (Spouse, Barbara Wallace), and Keith R. Wallace, Signal Mountain, TN (Spouse, Nyla F. Wallace), as well as his devoted friend, Joan Wright, Phoenix, AZ and a host of family and friends.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 13, 2021, at 2:00pm at

Reformed Living Bible Church, 6140 E. Thunderbird Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254

In lieu of flowers, you may donate to

Our Daily Bread Ministry, PO Box 356, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-0356 https://.odb.org

or

Reformed Living Bible Church, 6140 E. Thunderbird Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Life of a Salesman

A Tribute to John Lewis Wallace

By Marion Smith

Opportunity is something a person shouldn’t take for granted, whether in business or in living life. Our dad, John Lewis Wallace, believed in the pursuit of opportunities and journeyed through his 89 years of life seeking them everywhere he went. He valued timeliness, discipline, courage and determination. As a child, he learned early on that obedience was something you didn’t mess around with and that if you told someone you were going to do something, you needed to follow through. Those that influenced him the most were his mother, his coaches and teachers that drove a hard bargain and he tried to instill in us, his children, with every choice we made. Whether it was schooling, chores, relationships or careers, Dad viewed success as something to achieve and spent a lifetime surrounding himself with people that he felt had reached their mark. There never was a day when he didn’t take a challenge and saw those challenges as a way to succeed. He felt opportunities knocked on your door for a reason and led your life on a daily journey that God had ordained. Using his charming smile, his education, and his relationships he met along the way, Dad learned the art of success by traveling the road of opportunities.

Not long ago, I interviewed him to write his memoir and he told me he didn’t feel he was as successful as he could have been. He told me that he wished he would’ve finished college, that he wished he could have made more money, and that he wished he would've made different decisions in his lifetime. However, he ALSO said that he didn’t have any regrets, that he accepted whatever life dealt him, and that he put his trust in the Lord. Those life lessons taught Dad a great deal and made him who he was in his career as well as who he was as a husband and father. His mindset was to never look back, always push forward, and learn from your mistakes. In remembering Dad, the three things he tried to instill in his children and grandchildren were to always work hard, never quit, and ALWAYS put God first.

So, where did he get those values? From his mom and dad, Oscar and Marie Wallace, who raised three boys who all grew up knowing what hard work was all about. Dad was the oldest, born September 24, 1931 in Kansas City, MO and grew up in the small town of Blue Springs, MO, attended Blue Springs School from grades 1-12 and had a graduating class of only 32. Bob Baker and Guy Webb were his best friends. As far as subjects, he excelled in math, history, geography and sports, especially basketball and was proud of the fact that he was the starter and in senior high, he was the highest scorer for the team all year. At the age of 89, he could still recite all the high school games he played, which position he had and all the scores that were recorded. When Todd was young, he said when he and his friends would be playing basketball on the driveway, Dad would come home from work, put down his briefcase on the drive, take the ball and start effortlessly shooting the ball into the basket - EVERY SINGLE TIME! Todd would ask him, “Dad, how do you do that?” And Dad would answer, “It’s all in the wrist, Todd, it’s all in the wrist!” Dad also prided himself with perfect attendance at school and also reciting 200 lines in his high school senior play. I think he also got to kiss a girl in that play too, which he always talked about! After graduating high school in 1949, Dad took accounting and business law at the College of Commerce for a year and also joined the Air Force Reserves that same year. In 1951, the Korean War began, so he was activated and sent to Roswell, NM where he served as a clerk typist since he could type 60 wpm. By the time he was honorably discharged, 21 months later, he’d earned the status of Sergeant.

In Dec 1952, romance became a reality when he met our mother, Diane Edwards at a Methodist Church while on a 10-day furlough. Dad liked that she was a churchgoer, worked a job, and was very attractive. They dated mostly by correspondence, but when he was in town, they loved to ballroom dance and when he proposed to her, yes - it was on a ballroom floor at the Pla-Mor Ballroom in Kansas City, MO. Six months later on July 18,1953, they were married but didn’t have a honeymoon until two months later, and spent a weekend in the Ozarks at Dad’s Grandma Edna’s cabin. They slept on a featherbed, had to use an outhouse, and got to have fresh fried chicken for breakfast that Grandma Edna had killed and DE feathered that morning just for them. Church, family, travel, and getting together with friends was their commonality, but their differences were that Dad liked sports, but Mom didn’t. Mom was a spender but Dad kept the purse strings tight. Mom was an accomplished artist but Dad couldn’t draw a straight line, yet he encouraged her to pursue her talent. Mom liked to cook but Dad couldn’t, however, he loved to eat her cooking and was willing to try new things. Mom was a social bug while Dad was happy to stay at home. Mom was the homemaker while Dad was the sole breadwinner.

In 1956, Mom and Dad had me, their first daughter, Marion Lynn. He considered himself an involved parent because he was expected to get up in the night and warm my milk and also dunk the reusable dirty diapers in the toilet. In describing that experience, he told me, “It was a real surprise. It seemed like it kept going on and on - it never stopped, kind of like milking cows.” In 1958, they bought their first home in Prairie Village, Kansas for $12,000. Dad worked at several companies, starting with delivering milk for Adams Dairy, working as an elevator operator for Sears & Roebuck, and then working at the Kansas City Arsenal for a bit. He also worked for Western Electric as a central office installer, and then got an opportunity to work at Armor Fertilizer Plant in 1953. In 1956, they offered him his first sales position, which ignited a passion that would last a lifetime. Although he was excited to sell, he also said, “I was scared to death to work sales because that meant I had to talk to people one on one, and I was shy, but the more I did it, the more I liked it. That first year I was literally spinning my wheels, but then I began figuring out what I needed to do.” Three years later, in 1958, he was offered a sales job with Robinson Lawn & Golf, one of his customers. Dad not only sold for them, but also put together their catalogs. When his competitors got wind of his organizational skills, they began asking him to put together catalogs for them! So Dad took the opportunity and put together seven different catalogs for various companies in Kansas City.

In 1961, Mom and Dad became parents again with their second daughter, Emily Ruth. Some of the best memories of Dad, when Emily and I were kids, were the times he’d drive Mom and us around on new golf carts he’d bring home from Robinson’s. Those summer rides around the neighborhood were so much fun. Sometimes Dad would take Emily or me to his office to see all the big machinery and later, when I was ten or eleven, he let me help him put together the customer catalogs. I really appreciated his confidence in me to do that and the time we had together.

In 1964, Mom and Dad moved from Prairie Village to Overland Park and built a beautiful brick home. Dad’s pride and joy was planting a Zoysia lawn, which was a new type of hybrid grass. He painstakingly plugged Zoysia in little holes across our front yard, making our lawn look like polka dots and then nursed that grass like it was a baby. In 1965, NBC contacted Robinson’s Lawn & Golf to rent a golf cart that would hold their sideline camera, a newly introduced technology. They needed a driver, so Dad took the opportunity and drove the golf cart back and forth for the Kansas City Chiefs games. Every home game, for fifteen years, Dad was at Arrowhead Stadium on Sundays to drive the cart. One time, he took me along but all I remember was how COLD it was! He became very good friends with George Toma, groundskeeper for Arrowhead stadium and maintained that friendship even after he and Mom moved to Arizona, making a point to call George every year during Super Bowl time.

A lot of good memories were made in our home, not just the usual kind, but because Mom and Dad began hosting foreign exchange students and international visitors beginning in 1966. College students from India, Sicily, Japan, the Netherlands, and Thailand lived with us and one time we hosted two Russian ambassadors for dinner! I’ll never forget finding one of the men in Emily’s bedroom, down on the floor, playing Barbie Dolls with her when my sister was only five years old. Every year, we hosted someone new, learned different cultures, ate unique foods, and made lasting friendships. We even took a young 16-year-old girl from Thailand with us on a two-week camping trip to the sand dunes in Colorado. It was in this home that Mom and Dad had their first son, Preston Matthew, in 1967. Two years later, Todd Richard, was born. Mom and Dad found out another baby was on the way and they needed a bigger house, so they sold their brick home and moved a couple of blocks away to a spacious split level home. In 1971, Stephen Lane was born.

Life was full and being parents to five kids was quite a challenge, but Dad worked hard providing for us. In addition, he attended all our school events, pushed us to make good grades, and paid for countless piano lessons for me. When I was nine years old, he and Mom took me to the movie premier of The Sound of Music and also took me to see Ferrante and Teicher and Henry Mancini in concert when I was ten. I’ll never forget him leaning over to me and whispering in my ear, “Someday, you’re going to play like that.” He loved the music of Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass Band, as well as Andy Williams, and often grabbed Mom to waltz her around the kitchen to “Moon River.” He encouraged Emily when she worked as a hospital candy striper and when she rode along in EMT trucks as a volunteer. He was involved in taking his sons to cub scouts and sports events and Emily remembers going with Dad to the Royals baseball games several times. When Preston, Todd, and Stephen wanted to build half bike ramps for the driveway, he approved so they could do tricks and he also supported Preston when he joined the National Guard. When we needed help, like first car loans, Dad was there to co-sign, and sometimes he’d loan us money if we got in a pinch. I remember the time, when I was 18, he charged me 10% interest to pay off my overextended credit card debt. That really taught me the reality of finance! When Emily and I got married, he walked us down our wedding aisle, and loaned Emily and Terry his camping trailer when they needed temporary housing as newlyweds.

Summer camping trips were a part of our childhood every year, with Dad hitching up our StarCraft trailer to our station wagon and taking us to Lake of the Ozarks, the Midwest, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and beautiful Arizona to experience adventure. Cranking up the radio, he’d listen to old time country and western tunes and when we arrived at the campsites, he never rented areas with running water or electricity. Oh no! Being the penny pincher that he was, we had to really rough it, dig a hole, drape the trees with sheets for a primitive bathroom, use the same water for seven baths, make a campfire and use Coleman lanterns for lighting. Mom and Dad would pack that trailer to the gills, arrive at the campsite late at night, unpack, level the trailer, feed us and get us ready for bed. One time, poor Stephen rolled out of the trailer onto a bed of leaves, when he was only six months old, because someone forgot to secure the flap! Another time, Dad backed the trailer in the middle of the night into our campsite and in the morning, the back wheels were within an inch from falling down a ravine! Another time, he parked the trailer on the Gulf of Mexico beach. In the morning the tide had come in and our trailer was surrounded by water!

Family was very important to Mom and Dad and we spent a great deal of time with our grandparents on both sides, attending Wallace/Moulder reunions in the Ozarks, getting together for holidays and birthdays, and celebrating accomplishments. We regularly visited aunts, uncles and cousins, went to weddings and funerals, which taught us the value of being with family, regardless of how far away we lived. We attended Valley View United Methodist Church, where Dad served as usher and also as a deacon on the board. He prayed for every meal, went to church every Sunday, and was instrumental in encouraging me to attend the Sunday night Methodist Youth Fellowship, by driving me back and forth, when I was a young teen. I always attribute Dad’s determination in getting me involved in church for paving the way towards my salvation. Terry recalls going to men retreats and bible studies with Dad and getting introduced to Joe Foss. When the holidays rolled around, Dad was always the one to give the dinner blessing.

He persevered with Mom to get us to adulthood the best they knew how, even in good times and bad. His demeanor at home was gruff and he didn’t show outward affection, except for his occasional famous “side hug”, but he was definitely proud of our accomplishments as well as the those of his grandchildren and told us often that he valued what we had done with our lives. His strict discipline paid off and from his perspective, he felt we all had grown up successful with good careers, strong marriages, and had done well raising our children. As a grandparent he was always willing to offer guidance if we asked. His exact words were, “I feel like I have a good relationship with my grandchildren, to offer whatever I know so I can pass it on, to be there to offer guidance, advice or direction but it’s up to them to receive it. Just being with them, being able to feed off their life, giving them advice, if they ask, on what things they could do to live a better life through good times and bad is up to the grandparent and that's what I try to do.” By the time he passed, he had eleven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Of course, the most important parenting advice he gave us was that we should bring Jesus into our lives. His exact words were, “If you turn your life over to Christ, He gives you guidance and direction.” Dad was not shy in letting people know that he believed in Christ and that church going, tithing and bible studies were as important as breath.

When Dad had worked for Robinson’s Lawn & Golf for 22 years, he and Mom decided to fulfill their dream of living in the Southwest, after having subscribed to the Arizona Highways for years. That magazine beckoned them to move west, so in 1980, Dad resigned from his job and relocated Mom and my brothers to Phoenix, with the exception of Emily and I. He landed a sales position at Phoenix Lawn & Garden Supply and both he and Mom immediately embraced Arizona as their home. Dad bought a black felt cowboy hat and several silver and turquoise bolas, wearing them proudly while loving the desert, and even the heat! In 1992, Dad was laid off from his sales job, and then took an opportunity to work for VIA Bus line, driving tour busses across the western United States for eight-day stretches. He loved coming home and telling about his adventures and his harrowing driving maneuvers in managing the large bus, especially when driving to Jerome. At Christmastime, VIA Bus Lines would let their drivers take family and friends on evening Christmas light tours around Phoenix. Dad would wind the bus around residential streets in Moon Valley, Scottsdale, Mesa and Tempe while his passengers sang Christmas carols. Dad also was always looking for ways to invest and enjoyed selling newly invented products that he thought would be the next hot item. He even dabbled in real estate for a time. The bottom line was that whatever Dad put his mind to sell, he did it wholeheartedly and believed that a good salesman not only sold, but learned lessons along the way, which taught a person the art of beating the odds, just like when he played the game of Scrabble. Selling, he believed, was and is a skill that requires knowledge, ingenuity and most of all perseverance.

Mom and Dad were married for almost 54 years and within those years they lived a moderate life, stayed faithful to each other and deepened their love for Christ. After us kids were out of the house, they traveled the country as much as they could afford, attended church, and enjoyed their life in Arizona. Dad golfed and Mom painted murals for custom Scottsdale homes. They filled their lives with babysitting grandkids, going to bible studies, spending time in Sedona at their timeshare, and fulfilling their individual interests. Then, in 2007, our mom died suddenly and Dad was thrust into widowhood at age 75. Keeping busy and receiving support from family and friends helped him the most through his loss, as well as his involvement at church. In 2008, he became close friends with Joan Wright, whom he and Mom had known for 25 years. Joan became a dear companion whom he could play Scrabble with, go to church with, and have dinner with. Joan lovingly embraced our family and became the anchor that our family needed. Every day, for twelve years, Joan was there for our dad, fixing him dinner or sharing a meal with him at Carlos O’Brien’s, his favorite Mexican restaurant. Together, they attended concerts and musicals, played cards with friends, drove to Ohio together numerous times to see her family, and shared countless holidays and special celebrations with both her family and ours. Even though it was hard not having Mom, Dad had found another jewel, named Joan, a loving gift that God gave to us. Their relationship was not romantic, but they loved each other and our family often remarked that if it hadn’t been for Joan, Dad would not have lived as long as he did.

Dad LOVED to play Scrabble and challenged anyone who wanted to play with him. He played for BLOOD and the only two people that could meet his match were my husband, Bob, and his friend, Joan Wright. Second to his love of Scrabble was Wii Bowling and horseshoes. He liked to swim, go to the gym to exercise, and enjoyed ping-pong and pool at his retirement center. He played all kinds of card games and taught me a nifty little game when I was a child called “52 card pickup”. I recall being so impressed at how he could make almost every card go into the can, just by flicking his wrist. He loved pro sports and always had the TV on watching baseball, football or golf. As kids, we learned quickly that we were to be seen and not heard unless we wanted to sit and watch the games with him and Todd and Stephen did just that, all of them rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cardinals, the AZ Diamondbacks, the Royals or the PGA tournaments. He was an avid golfer in his prime years and when he was invited, he always attended the pro tournaments in town as well as the Diamondbacks games. Dad was a died in the wool Republican and kept up on local and world news, but when he wanted something lighter, he’d watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, or PBS documentaries. His favorite movie was “Shawshank Redemption.” He was fond of the music of Ann Murray, Winona Judd, and the Blackwood Brothers and, like groupies, he and Joan would attend every Blackwood Brothers concert in town.

When he turned 85, we pitched in and bought him a slightly used champagne colored Lincoln Continental that he loved driving around town. He felt like a king in that car, not taking it past 35 mph in a 45 mph zone and rarely let anyone else drive, even if we felt we could drive better. He also loved riding in Stephen’s big tow truck and sometimes tagged along with Stephen during tows. Of course, all that driving made him hungry, so he started every day with scrambled eggs. When he lived with Emily and Terry, he not only got eggs, but bacon, toast, orange juice and coffee and Yoplait peach yogurt as a snack. He also loved ripe cantaloupe. When he visited Joan, he could grill and loved a good steak and swooned over coconut cream pie. If Emily stopped by Chick Fila, he always got a vanilla shake, and if he wanted something else sweet, he’d get Oreo cookies and Peppermint Patties out of Emily’s pantry.

He loved to hear a good joke but when he told his own, he’d laugh heartily after giving the punch line. In his last few years, he’d call me on Saturday mornings in Michigan to talk about the weather and he could talk your ear off about current events, politics, religion or sports. In his opinion, there was nothing better than a good debate. There wasn’t any topic he didn’t know something about and If you called him while traveling somewhere, all you had to do was tell him what highway you were on and he knew precisely where you were in the country, what route you were on, and provide some tidbit of information about that area. Dad was like a walking trivia encyclopedia, probably because of all the Jeopardy games he watched! He valued education, highly, encouraged us to learn all we could, and to strive for excellence. He taught us to seize opportunities, to not be afraid of the future and to work hard. If we persevered enough, he assured us that success would follow. Every time we‘d land a new job, Dad would say, “That may be the last job you’ll ever have!”

In my mind, I still see his wrinkly skin, his skin cancer on his face and arms, his blind eye and bent body looking more worn than ever before. But he never lost his engaging smile, and his vivid blue eyes and determined walk, although slow, showed purpose – and that was to let people know that he wasn’t finished yet, that he had more life to live, more people to meet, more places to go, more things to do, and more trusting in Christ. Dad was not a perfect father, but he was perfect for us. Through us, his children, Dad’s legacy is honored when we strive to keep his values and live our lives the best we know how. Dad, thank you for being our Dad, for working hard, for not quitting, and for teaching us to put God first. You may not have thought you achieved success, but in God’s eyes you succeeded because you fulfilled your purpose by being faithful to Mom and for giving us life. We love you and miss you and want you to know you’ll never be forgotten.