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John Facemyer: Steadfast in his own way
The Austintown and Canfield communities lost an active member Sunday morning when John Facemyer, 72, of Canfield, died after a yearlong battle with cancer.
John was an active member of the American Legion Austintown Memorial Post 301, Austintown Lions Club, Poland Masonic Lodge No. 766 Free and Accepted Masons, Veterans of Foreign Wars Mineral Ridge Post 4192, Saxon Club Branch No. 30, barbershop choruses in Youngstown and Pennsylvania and many more.
John was known as the man with all the hats – his daughter Debbie Marinelli said John involved himself in so many organizations after retirement and was busier than ever before.
John, a 40-year Lordstown General Motors employee, worked busily by occupying a spot in almost every position, said his wife, Barbara. He had remarkable perfect attendance for his entire employment period there.
“It didn’t matter if he was sick as a dog, he would be there,” Debbie said. “No one worked as hard as he did.”
John organized Austintown’s Memorial Day Parade festivities for eight years, including the parade this past holiday, despite his illness.
“He hardly let us help,” Debbie chuckled.
Greg, John’s son and a physician at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, said John comically ignored those trying to get him to slow down, and even Greg’s medical advice, when they first discovered his condition.
“As a doctor, I knew how bad it was, and I was just looking from test to test and I wanted to just throw up,” he said. “How was I going to tell him? But he told me not to beat around the bush and give it to him straight – so I said he had about six months” to live.
With the bad news in mind, John again ignored his son’s advice against chemotherapy and opted to fight the cancer.
“There was no hesitation,” Greg said. “[John] just said, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to fight this.’”
Up until shortly before he died, John’s family agreed, it was as if the news hadn’t affected him.
“He never stopped – through his whole illness he lived his life as normal as possible,” Debbie said.
The family remembers John fondly as a tough-as-nails go-getter, doing what he wanted when he wanted until the day he died.
Greg’s memory froze his father in time, sitting in his lawn chair in the garage drinking a beer or hitting a baseball through a school window after telling Greg not to – then spending the duration of the weekend stressing about fixing it.
Debbie said she would always remember her father’s considerate nature.
“Anytime you ever needed anything at all, he would be there,” she said.
Debbie said shortly after her divorce she bought a house that needed love on the outside and called none other than the man who had such pride in organization and good yardwork.
“We took on that yardwork together and, boy, he worked me under the table,” she said. “But we never argued and just worked side by side until the deed was done.”
Greg laughed and said John’s discipline was also his demise.
“I’d drive past the house and see new lights strung up around Christmas, then drive past again and see more,” he said, shaking his head.
Maybe that is why Barbara remembers her husband mostly through Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” because of the ongoing stubbornness he had until the day he died.
“His motto was, ‘I’m going to live my life my way,’ and that is exactly what he did,” she said.
John’s stubbornness prevailed, as he didn’t take his last breath until after Greg and Debbie assured him all of the yardwork was done.