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Note: N1346 John Henry Nauta was named, Diane believes, for Janke/Jennie's immediately younger brother Johannes who died as a child when Janke was about 4. It is curious that his niece, Carole, named her eldest boy also for her younger brother who had died not too long before David Brent's birth. John Henry was also named for his maternal grandfather Hendrik Lammertsma.
In high school he ran track. He was the first of his family to attend college, graduating Hope College at the start of the Great Depression. He worked his way through Hope, sometimes picking peas to make money. After college, during the 1930s, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for a time and worked on public projects like McCormick's Creek State Park. He worked for Sims, an insurance company in Indianapolis and at RCA. Drafted into the Army during WWII he served as a Warrant Officer in the finance section (payroll) at Laurenburg-Maxton Army Airbase. After the war he was a clerk in the Irvington branch of the US Post Office until his sudden death in 1950.
He lived in the Nauta family home on Trowbridge Street until he married Anna in 1942 when he was drafted into the US Army. They had intended to marry for many years, but John insisted on caring for his mentally and emotionally unstable mother, especially after his father, Jelle, died. Annie would not marry him and raise children in such a home. When he was drafted and Jennie went to the home in Michigan, they were free to marry. They lived for three years in Maxton/Laurenburg AAF base in North Carolina where John was a Warrant Officer and Anna taught shorthand and typing to soldiers and employees. On road trips back to Indianapolis they usually spent the night at Sanders Motor Court in Corbin, Kentucky, where John always had the fried chicken for supper: the original recipe of "Col" Sanders who owned the motel. The motel went out of business when the highway moved and Col. Sanders was forced into another line of work in the 1960s.
John and Anna were members of the Christian Park Reformed Church (formerly the Covenant Reformed Church) until two years before his death. Because of a major conflict with the then minister at CPR (Rev Cook), he, his wife Annie, and daughter Diane started going to Irvington Presbyterian Church where he was a member at his death.
Always sharp of mind, he was a life-long student of the Bible and spirituality. Though sober of aspect and demeanor, he liked practical jokes and to play cards. He and Annie played a game of cribbage almost every evening of their married lives. Jeannette tells how he used to organize his younger siblings into playing "street car" using the kitchen chairs as props. He was the conductor and he ran the streetcar complete with sound effects.
[Written by Diane Nauta]
died at home 4701 English Ave., Indianapolis, IN; coronary occlusion
Social Security Death Index about John Nauta
Name: John Nauta
SSN: 303-14-2215
Born: 8 Jan 1909
Died: Dec 1950
State (Year) SSN issued: Indiana (Before 1951)
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