John Henry Adams, Jr.

His Story

Mr. John Henry Adams, Jr. was born to John and Clintonia Adams on December 16, 1918, in Hiawatha, Kansas.

The family relocated when John was three to Kansas City, Kansas where he lived-out his entire life.  He grew up in the Episcopal Church, once serving as an altar boy, and joined First A.M.E Church-the life-long church of his wife of fifty-one years, Barbara, who he married in 1946.

John’s father taught him to operate motion picture projection equipment at age nine.  By age eighteen, John was a projectionist at the Regal Theatre and later, the Princess Theatre, for him, a career that spanned more than half a century.  He served as Secretary/Treasurer of the then segregated union, Local 170-A and served many movie theatres in greater Kansas City.

John was graduated from Sumner High School in 1936.  John was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1942, trained as a Topographic Draftsman, and was assigned to the U. S. Air Force Engineers in California.  While attached to the Army Corp of Engineers in Alabama, he qualified for a program to become an Officer Candidate for pilot training.  John attended Tuskegee Institute, completed the course work, became a single engine fighter pilot, received his wings and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, assigned to the New 99th Fighter Squadron located in Godman Field, Kentucky and later, attached to the 332nd in Waterboro, South Carolina.  John received his honorable discharge in late 1945 as WWII was ending.

John returned home to resume work as a projectionist and to develop talents in drawing and painting, attended the Kansas City Art Institute where he earned a Bachelor and Master’s Degrees of Fine Arts in Illustration, specializing in oil-on-canvass portrait painting.  Social economic pressures steered John to an opportunity with the U. S. Postal Service and a thirty-one-year career as a letter carrier, mostly serving the Northeast Kansas City, Kansas Community of Quindaro.

John was an early entrepreneur, earning a Series-6 Certification from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and an Electronics Certification from Devry Institute, venturing into mutual funds sales and television repair.  Throughout his life, John would also work as a Lawn Care Professional around the city. 

John loved jazz music of the “Swing” era and was a fine pianist.  He loved to collect and listen to great jazz music and to dance with his wife, Barbara.

John peacefully departed this life on February 15, 2018, at home, surrounded by loved ones, under the care of hospice.  He was preceded in death by his devoted wife, Barbara Jean (Harris) Adams; parents; Clintonia Margarite (Brooks) Adams and John W. H. Adams, Sr.; his sisters, Wilma Louise Adams; and Alice Loree Tucker.

He leaves to cherish his memory four sons, John H. Adams, III (Karen), St. Louis, Missouri; George Adams (Jo); David Adams (Diana); and Robert “Bobby” Adams; nephew, Duvegnaude (Susan) Browne; niece, Tonia (Mark) Saulet; goddaughter, U. Diane Buckingham; eight grandchildren; six great grandchildren; many more relatives and family and friends.  

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