John Henry Massengale Jr. — known and loved by everyone as “Junie” — was born on March 6, 1950, in Cleveland, Ohio, to John Henry and Inez Massengale. The fifth of eight children, he grew up surrounded by family and never really stopped living that way.

After high school, John was selected for the military draft and served honorably in the U.S. Army. He returned home to Cleveland and built his working life at LTV Steel. Through it all, he professed Christ and lived simply by Luke 6:31 — not just as a verse, but as a daily practice.

Junie was a blessing to us all.  He was the kind of man who just showed up. Need to move? Call Junie. Running a little short? Junie had you. He’d return his neighbor’s garbage cans to their yard, check on you without being asked, and quietly meet needs before you even finished explaining them. He gave good advice too — the real kind, calm and straight, without making you feel judged for asking. He had a way of saying exactly what you needed to hear and leaving it at that.

He loved to have fun — and he was good at it. You could find Junie on the skating rink gliding like he had somewhere important to be.  He had his lottery formula down to a science — birthdays, anniversaries, lucky numbers stacked just right — and could give you the history of when the number last hit. He danced, he laughed, he pulled lighthearted pranks, and he made every room a little louder and a lot more fun. He was a gentleman through and through, and the children in the family adored him — he was always ready to take them skating or bowling just because.

John never married and had no children of his own, but Shawnda Phillips held a place in his heart as though she were his daughter. Family was everything to him, and he gave it everything he had.