John "Jack" Vaughn

John Hamilton “Jack” Vaughn, aged 93, died on September 4, 2016, at St. Luke's

hospital from complications following an early morning stroke two days prior at home.

He was born on November 27, 1922, in Superior, Wisconsin, moving to Duluth’s

Hunter’s Park neighborhood in 1970 after marrying his wife of 46 years, Therese, a

native Duluthian.

As a young boy, John developed an interest in aviation and began purchasing model

airplane kits for home assembly from the Woolworth’s department store not far from his

childhood home on Tower Avenue. In 1938, he received his first airplane ride in a

standard bi-plane touring through the Douglas County Tri-State Fair. After entering the

Army in 1943, John took the aviation cadet examination. He completed his one-year

program of flight training at Luke Field in Arizona. John graduated from further,

advanced flight training soon after the conclusion of World War ll. He remained on

active duty in the Wisconsin Army National Guard as a liaison pilot and took full-time

employment with the Soo Line railroad. After the formation of the Air Force as a

discrete branch of the military in 1947, John was offered the option to join the emerging

Air National Guard unit in Duluth which he chose to do. He served as a reserve military

pilot and took new full-time employment as a civilian, Federal government employee

within the ANG unit until his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1978.

John took an early liking to music as well, listening to a popular weekly radio program

called the Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street as a young man. influenced

by this program which nurtured his life-long appreciation for Dixie Land jazz, John

learned how to play the trombone during his high school years. He played in the

Superior Central High School dance band and served as a drum major of the band

during later high school. Afterward, he played with the University of Wisconsin-Superior

(known as the Superior State Teachers College at the time) band for a short period

before his military enlistment. Military service and raising a son later in life overtook

musicianship for several decades. Then, in the 1990s, John began performing again

with the ISD 709 Community Band and the Windjammers, a smaller ensemble that

focused on swing and big band music. He played until 2013. He took much satisfaction

from the knowledge that his musicianship with both groups gave an infusion of joy to

others whether they were taking in the view at Duluth’s Rose Garden, attending their

adult GED graduation ceremony, celebrating a milestone at a family gathering, strolling

down memory lane in a residential center or attending a formal concert. He was also a

willing vocal soloist with the Windjammers as well. John’s first trombone cost $39.00

and it remains in the family today.

John was an observant Roman Catholic throughout his life. He was baptized at the

Cathedral of Christ the King in Superior and remained a parishioner there into

adulthood. After meeting Therese, the couple was married at the former St. Anthony’s

parish in Duluth in 1970. They joined St. Benedict's congregation after purchasing a

home near Hartley Field. ln 1985, they joined the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary.

He maintained a regular prayer practice at the Chapel of the Holy innocents located

within St. Mary Star of the Sea church for several years. John was a third-degree life

member of the Knights of Columbus John J. O'Hehir Council headquartered at St.

John’s parish in Woodland before transferring his membership to the recently formed

Msgr. Lawrence O’Shea Council at the Cathedral.

John is survived by his wife, Therese (DeBot), and a son, Thomas, of Duluth; a step-

daughter, Barbara (G.S) Dodge of Manassas, Virginia; grandson, Damien (Christy)

Dodge and their four children of Chesapeake, Virginia; grand-daughter Sr. Therese

Dodge, RSCJ, of Florence, Italy; two nieces, Kathryn Kinnelly of Canton, Michigan and

Patricia Charney of New Berlin, Wisconsin; and a nephew Richard Anderson of

Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Visitation will be Sunday from 4-6pm with Wake Prayers at 5:30pm in the Dougherty Funeral Home.  Visitation will continue Monday from 10am to the 11am Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, 2801 E 4th St. Duluth, MN.  Burial with military honors accorded by the Duluth Honor Guard at Calvary Cemetery.

Memorials can be sent to the Religious Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at lstituto

del Sacro Cuore Viale Michelangiolo 27 50125 Firenze ltalia.

Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home, 600 E 2nd St. Duluth, MN, (218) 727-3555.