In the last minutes of the first day of spring, Johnny Athearn peacefully passed away. He had been patiently coping with illness for several years. During that time, he was able to enjoy the devotion of his friends, family, and caregivers, for which he would always show his gratitude.
Johnny was born in 1951, in the 10th generation of his family’s residence on Martha’s Vineyard, the fourth child of Elmer (“Mike”) Athearn and Elizabeth Brehm Athearn. Growing up on Music Street, he made full use of the ponds, fields, and woods of West Tisbury, as well as visiting practically every house in the village. As he grew, his love of his homeland deepened and expanded, and brought him into familiarity with a wide variety of people, world-famous or local characters.
John attended Cape Cod Community College and Roger Williams College in Rhode Island, and finally the University of Massachusetts, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in childhood education. In summers, he worked with Mary Payne and the Island Children’s Theater, where he enjoyed working with young children. He followed that path into the public schools as an assistant kindergarten teacher, mainly in Edgartown, working with Mary Gentle. Together they provided a sweet and loving introduction to education. The parents of the children would speak to John’s family members about how much they loved John. This continues to the present day, but with the children now grown, with children of their own.
Johnny also enjoyed working with farmers getting their hay in; the Whitings, the Fischers, his uncle Leonard Athearn, and, later on, his brother’s Morning Glory Farm. He had a reputation among the hay crews as an excellent stacker, the most important job, as he would have to handle each bale tossed to him and place it artfully on the growing stack on the moving truck quickly, so he would not create a backup with the crew on the ground. As Morning Glory Farm grew, he worked with his brother on all phases of the work involved. His love for the land and his family heritage also drew him to Tississa, where the Jones family owned considerable acreage on Deep Bottom Cove, where they were restoring the pastures. For years he tended the farm’s goats and horses, and watched over the barns and house. He also built his own house on family land in Chilmark, with the help of his friends, and helped to clear the brush and trees that had crept in over the past 50 years so that cattle could be grazed there, and he could enjoy the view of fields, stone walls, and distant Menemsha Pond.
Johnny loved getting together with his friends for a party. Usually this also involved unpacking the guitars and singing the old songs that the musicians had dug up from the days when homemade music was the way people socialized. It continued the tradition from his father, Mike Athearn, who played several instruments and sang with the fathers of Johnny’s friends in the 1930s.
When John decided to leave the environment of schools, he devoted himself to art. He was a talented watercolor artist, and his work developed a simple theme; outdoor scenes of land, water, barns, and houses that looked like someplace on Martha’s Vineyard, but were all seen only in his imagination. He also seldom painted anything larger than 5 by 7 inches. He loved his art his way.
John never married; his children were the scores of kindergarteners he loved so much. He also had several nieces and nephews, Matthew, Susan, and Morgan, children of Connie Athearn Taylor and Bob Taylor; Brian Athearn, son of George and Debby Athearn; and Prudence, Simon, and Daniel, children of Jim and Debbie Athearn; plus 15 grand-nieces and -nephews; and his favorite first cousin, Charlie Kernick.
A burial service will take place at the West Tisbury Cemetery on April 13 at 1:30 pm, officiated by the Rev. Cathlin Baker, followed by a memorial service in the Grange Hall at 2 pm.
The post John Nickerson Athearn appeared first on The Martha's Vineyard Times.