John hails originally from the mountain’s of North Carolina, moving to Daytona Beach, Florida with his wife, Linda in 1962.  To meet & make new friends a neighbor invited them to join a square dance class.  The instructor had amateur night, being a natural singer John had no trouble enjoying being on the stage & pleasing an audience.  He started his first beginner class in fall of 1963, joined the Florida Caller Association & the rest is history.  Traveling & Calling extensively through out the United States, Europe and the Far East has brought him & his family many wonderful & memorable friendships with dancers & callers around the square dance world. 

John established a monthly Callers Note Service for callers around the world, which serviced callers with educational information on calls & teaching from 1993 – 2006, with over 500 subscribers during the peak of the square dance activity.   He has been a member of the Florida Callers Association for 46 years, a Callerlab member & Caller Coach along with being an American Caller’s Association caller training specialist. He has attended & called & conducted clinics at 16 National Conventions. He along with his wife, was inducted into the Florida Hall of Fame in 2002, He was one of the originators of one of the most popular square dance weekend on the East Coast, “The Florida Sunshine Festival”, which lasted for 30 years, and is now on the staff of the “Florida Winter Festival” in its 4th year.  He has been on staff at one time or another at many major weekends around the US, taken dancers to all the major countries in Europe to enjoy dancing & calling with callers around the globe.   One of the most memorable was calling in Beijing, China, where 200 Chinese dancers enjoyed an afternoon of dancing with the dancers from the US & calling at the Great Wall of China. John has numerous recordings on Kalox, McGregor, Blue Star and Brahma record labels and he appeared on one of the Sets In Order albums.

John’s wife, Linda has been a major supporter through out his calling career.  They have 5 great children and 15 wonderful grandchildren who keep them busy & are the highlights of their life.  

John & Linda will never retire from the friendships they have made through the activity, as everyone knows Square Dancing is an expression Happiness.

John’s style of calling is renowned as smooth, enjoyable and interesting for the dancers. He would like to be remembered as a smooth, enjoyable square dance caller who gives his very best at every dance.