John Jacob Theis
February 10, 1920 — August 7, 2012
John Jacob Theis, 92, was born in Bloomington, Illinois on February 10, 1920 and passed away in LaVerne, Ca. on August 7, 2012 following a lengthy illness.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 10:00 am at St. Linus Catholic Church in Norwalk. Interment will follow at Queen of Heaven Cemetery.
He is survived by his son, Tim Theis of Upland and his daughters, Kathy Reyes of Santa Ana, Madeline Lozano of Solvang, Julie Pane of Naperville, IL., Janet Saraf of Irvine, Mary Theis Van Schaak of Klammoth Falls, OR., Pattie Rosales Theis of Bellevue, WA., Barbara Theis of Prescott Valley, AZ, Sheila Theis of Prescott Valley, AZ., Anne Van der Linden of Temecula and Maureen Barrio of Ventura. He also leaves 18 grandchildren and 1 great grandaughter.
Condolences may be sent to the family through our web site.
A little bit about John...........
What he loved …
-Love of travel across the US in the trailer.
-Love of women… When we moved him to his house in La Verne he was thinking it would be a sorority house and was asking "where are the young girls?"
-On the days he didn't want to go outside for a walk we would say "there may be pretty girls out there." he would practically jump up to go outside.
-He loved drawing and painting.
-He loved music and made tapes of us all singing in the living room with his reel to reel tape recorder.
-He loved to dance… When we were little he would teach us the waltz and the fox trot and we would teach him to dance to rock n roll in the living room.
-When we would play our music he would dance with us even if he only had time to dance across the room on his way out.
-He made up songs so that we thought it was fun to work…"Wash the dishes, scrub the floors, oh
baby" was his favorite.
Building the Baldwin Park House
Dad drew all the plans for the house and did most of the work with help from Uncle Nick, his sons and all of us who were old enough to hold a hammer. The only people he actually hired were the people who poured the foundation.
He was a skilled woodworker and made a lot of the furniture we had when we were little. He made all the cabinets in the house and we had to sand, stain and varnish them all.
He could fix almost everything. He saved spare parts from everything that broke just in case he might need it someday.
Favorite moments as a boy….
He was born John Jacob Theis on 2/10/1920 – he remembered this date as a kid by multiplying his birth date 2 x 10 = 20.
He was baptized at St. Mary's church in Bloomington on 2/15/1920 where he was raised catholic. He had He remembered that as a child they used to ride to church in a horse and buggy with their white horse named "Cap". He said that their first car had a horse in front of it.
Dad often talked about how he loved growing up on his parents' farm in Bloomington Illinois. He loved that is was near the Chicago Alton Railroad yard. He loved to watch the trains.
He loved the huge American Elm tree near his home and he and his brothers and sisters would climb the tree and have fun for hours. The shortest branch was too high for them to reach so they went to the railroad yard and "Borrowed" some railroad spikes they found lying around and brought them back to hammer into the tree so they could climb up to the first branch.
Behind their farm there was a creek where they loved to play in the summer. It was called "Sugar Creek". He said he had so many fun memories there.
Moved to California…
When he was in his 20's he was working for the Chicago Alton railroad and they had a line to Kansas City, Kansas. He was offered a job in Kansas at the railroad and lived with his brother Joe and his sister in law Peg. When his brother Joe and Peg moved to Sierra Madre, California dad followed them there.
In 1951 at the age of 31 dad got a job at I.T.E wiring circuit breakers for power lines. He was forced to retire in 1982 because the company got bought out by ASEA Brown Boveri. He looked for work for almost 2 years and then a friend offered him work at a pet manufacturing plant just for something to do until he found another job. (They made cat scratch posts). Then he worked at Wolstein Equipment as an inventory stock person from 1984 to 1991 when he retired.
He loved to draw and paint with water colors so he took many art classes at the Baldwin Park community center near his home.
Mom and Dad
Dad met mom at the Catholic Cardinal Club in Pasadena. They were long time members. It was a club for young catholic people to hang out and go to different places. One of their favorite places was the old casino dance hall in Avalon on Catalina Island where they would get really dressed up and go dancing.
He was so romantic when he proposed to mom. It was after her 25th birthday had passed in May 1954 and he said "So I guess I'll buy you that ring you wanted for your birthday". They filed for a marriage license on June 26 1954 and were married on July 24, 1954 at St. Andrews church in Pasadena, California by Father Francis Cahill. Her Sister Eileen was her maid of honor and Don Giggar was dad's best man. Dad was 34 years old and mom was 25.
A Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 10:00 am at St. Linus Catholic Church in Norwalk. Interment will follow at Queen of Heaven Cemetery.
He is survived by his son, Tim Theis of Upland and his daughters, Kathy Reyes of Santa Ana, Madeline Lozano of Solvang, Julie Pane of Naperville, IL., Janet Saraf of Irvine, Mary Theis Van Schaak of Klammoth Falls, OR., Pattie Rosales Theis of Bellevue, WA., Barbara Theis of Prescott Valley, AZ, Sheila Theis of Prescott Valley, AZ., Anne Van der Linden of Temecula and Maureen Barrio of Ventura. He also leaves 18 grandchildren and 1 great grandaughter.
Condolences may be sent to the family through our web site.
A little bit about John...........
What he loved …
-Love of travel across the US in the trailer.
-Love of women… When we moved him to his house in La Verne he was thinking it would be a sorority house and was asking "where are the young girls?"
-On the days he didn't want to go outside for a walk we would say "there may be pretty girls out there." he would practically jump up to go outside.
-He loved drawing and painting.
-He loved music and made tapes of us all singing in the living room with his reel to reel tape recorder.
-He loved to dance… When we were little he would teach us the waltz and the fox trot and we would teach him to dance to rock n roll in the living room.
-When we would play our music he would dance with us even if he only had time to dance across the room on his way out.
-He made up songs so that we thought it was fun to work…"Wash the dishes, scrub the floors, oh
baby" was his favorite.
Building the Baldwin Park House
Dad drew all the plans for the house and did most of the work with help from Uncle Nick, his sons and all of us who were old enough to hold a hammer. The only people he actually hired were the people who poured the foundation.
He was a skilled woodworker and made a lot of the furniture we had when we were little. He made all the cabinets in the house and we had to sand, stain and varnish them all.
He could fix almost everything. He saved spare parts from everything that broke just in case he might need it someday.
Favorite moments as a boy….
He was born John Jacob Theis on 2/10/1920 – he remembered this date as a kid by multiplying his birth date 2 x 10 = 20.
He was baptized at St. Mary's church in Bloomington on 2/15/1920 where he was raised catholic. He had He remembered that as a child they used to ride to church in a horse and buggy with their white horse named "Cap". He said that their first car had a horse in front of it.
Dad often talked about how he loved growing up on his parents' farm in Bloomington Illinois. He loved that is was near the Chicago Alton Railroad yard. He loved to watch the trains.
He loved the huge American Elm tree near his home and he and his brothers and sisters would climb the tree and have fun for hours. The shortest branch was too high for them to reach so they went to the railroad yard and "Borrowed" some railroad spikes they found lying around and brought them back to hammer into the tree so they could climb up to the first branch.
Behind their farm there was a creek where they loved to play in the summer. It was called "Sugar Creek". He said he had so many fun memories there.
Moved to California…
When he was in his 20's he was working for the Chicago Alton railroad and they had a line to Kansas City, Kansas. He was offered a job in Kansas at the railroad and lived with his brother Joe and his sister in law Peg. When his brother Joe and Peg moved to Sierra Madre, California dad followed them there.
In 1951 at the age of 31 dad got a job at I.T.E wiring circuit breakers for power lines. He was forced to retire in 1982 because the company got bought out by ASEA Brown Boveri. He looked for work for almost 2 years and then a friend offered him work at a pet manufacturing plant just for something to do until he found another job. (They made cat scratch posts). Then he worked at Wolstein Equipment as an inventory stock person from 1984 to 1991 when he retired.
He loved to draw and paint with water colors so he took many art classes at the Baldwin Park community center near his home.
Mom and Dad
Dad met mom at the Catholic Cardinal Club in Pasadena. They were long time members. It was a club for young catholic people to hang out and go to different places. One of their favorite places was the old casino dance hall in Avalon on Catalina Island where they would get really dressed up and go dancing.
He was so romantic when he proposed to mom. It was after her 25th birthday had passed in May 1954 and he said "So I guess I'll buy you that ring you wanted for your birthday". They filed for a marriage license on June 26 1954 and were married on July 24, 1954 at St. Andrews church in Pasadena, California by Father Francis Cahill. Her Sister Eileen was her maid of honor and Don Giggar was dad's best man. Dad was 34 years old and mom was 25.
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