The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Reporter's note: Many locals will likely remember John "Sanitary John" Herndon who served as the Blaine County Sanitarian from April, 1953 to February, 1983. His tenure was just a couple months short of thirty years in the position. John now lives in Virginia, near his daughter Lucia. In September John celebrated his 100th birthday.

Last October, on my way to our fall job at the pumpkin patch in Washington state, I got a call from L.G. Stewart. He's a former resident of Chinook who now lives in Ball Ground, Washington. He said, "I read some of your stories about local characters. Would you consider doing a story about Sanitary John?" Interestingly, just a couple weeks before I heard about Sanitary John in relation to a gardening story I was doing. He was remembered for a large garden and sharing vegetables with many in the area. I had been wanting to write about a centenarian, someone who is 100 or more years old, and I was assured "John was quite a character and you will find lots of stories about him."

I got the contacts for his daughter, Lucia, and we began corresponding and talking by phone. Lucia really got in to the project noting "during the last few years I have truly been able to learn who my dad really is." Many locals shared their stories and memories about John. Here are a few of the tales about centenarian Sanitary John Herndon.

Some "pre-Blaine County" history of Sanitary John

John was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1917. His mom died when John was three months old and he and his brother lived for a time with their paternal grandparents in Arkansas. John's father remarried and the family lived in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. From a young age John worked to help support himself and gave money to his stepmother. At about age 16 he went to live with an aunt in California. He finished high school there and earned a two year degree in botany at a local community college. While in school he did various jobs including highway construction, clerking in a grocery store and fishing and selling the fish to local markets.

He enlisted in the Army in 1940 and ended up in the Army Air Corps (forerunner of the Air Force). He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands where he worked on radar installations. Radar was in its early stages at that time. He did more traveling while in the military and was discharged in 1944 in the Sacramento area.

He went to Spokane where he attended both Gonzaga and Whitworth Colleges. While a student at Gonzaga he ended up being a bat boy for the New York Mets. The Mets were living in the dorms at Gonzaga while they did spring training. John's college roommate left school and a baseball player took the vacated space. Through the roommate he learned of the job and was hired. He later attended MSU in Bozeman for a short time, returning again to the Spokane area.

John married Mary Larango while attending college in Spokane. He graduated and went to Atlanta where he worked as a bacteriologist for Coca Cola. He did not like the south or the job, so the couple moved back to Spokane where he worked a number of jobs, some in his field of study and others not related. He learned of the sanitarian's job in Chinook, applied and began the job in the spring of 1953.

Sanitary John was known for smoking stinky cigars and his passions for gardening and fishing

Nearly everyone I asked about John Herndon would mention his stinky cigars. Lucia wrote he didn't smoke in college because he couldn't afford the habit but he made up lost time once he started. Mary Pyette was the county nurse at the time. She said, "Our offices were in the courthouse Annex and I could smell John's cigars as soon as he entered the building, even if I didn't see him. I'd yell at him, "John, put out your cigar!"" Sheri Miller was a secretary in the Annex and added, "Sometimes the smoke would get so heavy I'd go close John's door and open his windows to air out the place."

Lois Butcher and her husband owned the Pastime Bar in Chinook. She said, "John was notorious for flicking his ashes anywhere but in to the ash tray." A former bartender there told, "John had a way of pushing his cigar across the ash tray so all the ashes fell on the bar instead of in the ash tray." Frank Pehrson, Jr. said his service station used to clean cars when they serviced them. He said, "I remember the smoke residue was so heavy on John's vehicle windows it took several bottles of wash to get them clean."

Jerry Shepherd first met John in 2000. New to Chinook, Shepherd asked about someone he could fish with and was introduced to John. Shepherd told that he had gone to visit his daughter and "I bought a package of John's favorite cigars. When I gave them to him John said, "I've been thinking about quitting." Shepherd added, "I brought the six cigars in April and he made them last all the way through December of that year. I don't recall him ever smoking another cigar once those were gone."

The Herdons lived on Ohio Street where John raised vegetables and flowers. When the couple moved to the Grande Villa, John had a garden spot at Tom Inman's, west of Chinook. That property sold and Mick Thompson, on Clear Creek Road, offered John a garden spot, complete with irrigation and a place to start plants inside. Thompson was John's neighbor on Ohio Street and remembered how much John loved to garden.

The last few years John lived in Chinook he would spend winters in Virginia and summers Montana. In the summer of 2013 John told Lucia he was not going to grow a garden, he just couldn't do it anymore. Lucia wrote, "He had no idea the tears I shed when he told me that. I knew how much the garden meant to him." It was about that same time they began plans for John to move to Virginia permanently. John still raises plants in buckets and planters at the retirement home where he lives in Virginia.

It seems John's real passion, however, was fishing. He was once quoted as saying, "Gardening is better than watching TV and fishing is better than gardening." Daughter Lucia thinks part of his attraction to fishing is related to his lifelong interest in science and nature and the simple fact, "Dad loves to be outdoors for any reason, especially fishing."

John's son, Steve, still lives in Chinook. Daughter Lucia wrote, "It was very hard on

both when Dad left Chinook to live in Virginia. As a young boy Steve would fish with our Dad." Locals agree there were few bodies of water in the area that John had not fished at some point.

Recalling past road trips and planning future ones

George Adams is a family friend who helped John move from Chinook to Virginia. Adams remembered, "John was really bummed about leaving Montana. I promised him I would bring him on a road trip to come back and visit Montana. We made the trip a couple years later and it was amazing how much John knew and recalled about the places we visited on our trip." Stopping to eat in a small café in Wyoming, John began to tell stories about the town and the area. When George Adams asked John how he knew so much about the town, John said, "My dad owned this café years ago."

On the return trip to Montana, John asked George to drive around the area. For a time John was also the sanitarian for Hill County as well as Blaine. At the outskirts of the Rocky Boy Reservation, John said, "Better not take me there, I was banned years ago." Asked what the issue was, John laughed and said, "I can't recall, but they were really upset about something I did."

Sanitary John Herndon was well known for his large vegetable and flower gardens when he lived in Chinook. He now lives in Norfolk, Virginia near his daughter, Lucia. He still manages to tend a few vegetable plants on the patio where he lives.

Lucia and John both enjoy watching wildlife. Marilyn Szopenske, a fellow resident of the Grande Villa when John lived there, told of how much John enjoyed riding around the countryside. Marilyn would take John to pick up Lucia at the Great Falls airport and driving back to Chinook Lucia would stop the car right on the highway and exclaim, "Look at the antelope, Dad!" Lucia admitted both she and her dad got a little crazy when they saw wildlife.

George Adams told me, "If John is up to it, we'll make another road trip back to Montana. He's a great traveler and totally enjoys seeing the country." One evening Lucia and I were talking by phone and I asked her what John thought about making another trip back to Montana. She said, "When I mentioned a possible road trip to Montana, a big grin broke across his face." She added, "Dad misses Montana. He tells people, "I live in Virginia but my home is still in Montana."" I'd say there's a pretty good chance we'll be seeing Sanitary John back here at 'home' in north central Montana again, and soon.