John Payne Harrison

John Payne Harrison, age 72, passed away on Sunday, September 10, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas, surrounded by family, friends and some of his beloved feline companions. John was born on December 3, 1950, in Longview, Texas to parents, Frank Payne and Billie Fay Harrison and raised in the Piney Woods of East Texas. He graduated from Texas Senior High School, Texarkana, Texas with the class of 1969. He attended Texarkana college in Texarkana, Texas and received his Bachelors Degree in Education from North Texas State University (University of North Texas) in 1976. In 1988, he received a Masters of Arts Degree in Bi-Cultural/Bi-Lingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

He was preceded in death by his parents. John is survived by his wife of 40 years, Vicki Jo; brother, Frank Harrison of Albuquerque, New Mexico; and sister, Suzanne Bigbee of Louisville, Kentucky. He is also survived by brother-in-law, Alan Coleman and wife, Pam of Flower Mound, Texas; nieces, Toni Bigbee Pickering, Emily Lovett, Jennifer Franco, Amy Huedenko and many great nieces and nephews.

John spent his adult life as an educator. He taught school for 30 years and after retirement worked in the adult education field for 10 years. His favorite thing to teach was English as a Second Language and to help adults achieve their high school diplomas. Nothing made him happier than to see the successes of his students, current and former.

John loved spending time with his family and friends. He and Vicki Jo raised Siamese and Oriental Shorthair cats and John was always proud of their results in the show ring. He was active in The International Cat Association and served as the yearbook editor for 11 years. He was a founding member of Mission City Cat Club and helped produce many shows over the years. He enjoyed visiting with other members of the cat fancy and his lifelong cat fancy friends. One of his favorite activities was after show set-up on Friday nights, was to go out with everyone and visit and catch up.John also enjoyed reading and listening to books on tape. He loved to play video games on his Gameboy when he was just relaxing.

He loved various types of music, but his favorite band was The Mavericks and enjoyed going to concerts every now and then.

But John’s biggest gift or calling was that he had a servant’s heart. If anyone was in need or needed help, he was the first one there. Over the years he was caregiver to two dear friends that had moved into assisted living, and he was his father-in-law, Roy Coleman’s primary care giver until his passing. He was happiest when he was giving and helping.

John’s smile and his sense of humor will be missed but he would not want us to be sad but instead go out and do something nice for someone and be happy!

MEMORIAL SERVICETUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 202310:30 AMPORTER LORING MORTUARY1101 McCULLOUGH AVE, 78212

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Alzheimer’s Association at https://act.alz.org or to Every Cat Foundation for Amyloid research https://everycat.org or the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition https://sanantonioferalcats.org/