John "Smiling Jack" Tevnan's Obituary
Nicknamed by his golf buddies, but did anyone know why he was always smiling? I liked to think that I, his wife of 50 years, put that smile on his face. He often told me that I put the gray in his hair! Maybe it was his three great children: Jack, Christine and Rebecca, their spouses: Paula, Danny and Tom, and their children: Ryan and Jake, Evan, and Jack and Michael.
Jack was constantly introducing his family to new adventures: summers at the Jersey shore, buying a ski house in the Poconos, skiing out west for over a decade, sporting and music events at MSG in New York and enjoying shows on Broadway.
Before and after his time in the United States Marines, he worked at Prudential Life Insurance in Newark, N.J. Later, he worked in New York at Western Union. He eventually retired, after more than 20 years, as Manager of Telecommunications for the Beneficial Finance Corp.
We met in 1965 at the Jersey shore. We married in 1972 and bought our first house in 1974 near Clinton, N.J., where we lived for 26 years before he "dragged" me to Florida in '99. Once here, he couldn't golf enough. There were several articles written about him in the local newspaper. Someone thought they knew why he was smiling...that "Hole in One" or that "Eagle" or maybe that "Double Eagle". Of course it was!!!
There will be a Celebration of Life at the Grand Reserve Golf Course clubhouse located at 400 Grand Reserve Drive, Bunnell, FL 32110 on September 2, 2023 from 2 - 5 pm.
What’s your fondest memory of John "Smiling Jack"?
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