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For decades, John was a neighborhood fixture seen almost daily at the intersection of Pasadena Avenue. and Del Mar Boulevard., washing car windows, always with a happy smile on his face.
“I really appreciate all the love and attention you guys gave my dad out there,” his son Theodore Stacks III told Pasadena Now on Thursday.
John’s remains were taken to Chicago and his family held a memorial service which can be viewed at www.johnstacks.live.
Stacks said he would be watching the meeting and said he did not get to see his dad much, but his dad was always “his guy.”
John was originally from Chicago where he drove a bread delivery truck for a bakery company in 1974.
One day, several men attempted to rob John and during the robbery, shot him. His father sustained catastrophic injuries from the shotgun pellets, Stacks recounted.
“My dad was a good guy. I like to tell people that he just caught a bad deal in life.”
Despite multiple surgeries, doctors decided his left arm had to be amputated.
“Unfortunately that changed my dad’s life for the rest of his life. And, and if I’m not mistaken, he was in his twenties around the time that happened, maybe 25, 26.”
“In spite of this incident, he was a deeply spiritual man who kept believing in God and helped others believe in God and do what he could for people.”
Around 1992-93, John decided to move to California to start afresh and get “himself together.”
“The reason he came to Pasadena is because he had a sister living out there,” Stacks said. “So he came to set up with her to get himself together and try to get out and get his own place.”
His son said John lived in South Central Los Angeles, and took the train or bus to come to Pasadena every day and wash windshields.
Many people who saw John grew to appreciate him and some even introduced him to their family. So John would frequently get invited to family dinners, and his network of friends grew.
His own family in Chicago would only later learn that John was much loved in Pasadena.
Trying to pull together enough money to bring John to Chicago, Stacks started a GoFundMe page about a month ago. He said he is overwhelmed by the response.
“So I felt like, wow, my dad really was touching people’s hearts in California because I also was getting so many emails and text messages,” Stacks said.
“Since then, I’ve been meeting people, people have been emailing me, text messaging me with their condolences, and telling me how great a guy my dad was, how kind he was and how many kind words he had for them. And some people were telling me they were at the end of their rope and he was so spiritually inclined and helped guide them spiritually. It was just a joy for my heart to hear that he was there in California touching hearts and touching people’s souls.”
Stacks said his father had actually been ordained a minister in a church in Chicago before he left for California. It was there that the church started calling him John, for John the Baptist, his son said.
“He was out there ministering and making friends and meeting people,” Stacks said. “He really was touching hearts out there ministering to the point where a week after he passed, I actually did a little research myself in the Bible, on John, the revelation, because I felt like, wow, he was still ministering all those years after he had gotten shot and lost his arm and was on pain medicine for the next 40 plus years.”
His son said John was on pain medication ever since he was shot and his doctor had advised the family that the pain from his serious injuries would last a lifetime.
“My dad was literally washing windows at a red light in Pasadena for the last 25 years. The people that he met and the lives he touched was unbelievable.”
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