John Waller, Jr. was born up in Leasburg, Missouri, where his father was one of 14 men who started the Bank of Leasburg. The family moved to Sullivan during the 1930s. He “had his eye on” Esther Matthews from first grade and began dating her during high school. He excelled in sports such as basketball, baseball and track; the school didn’t have a football team. He set an unbroken pole vaulting record that was only retired in 1976 when flexible poles became standard. John was named a charter member of the Sullivan Sports Hall of Fame for his athletic accomplishments. He was also president of his junior class and student body president his senior year.

John graduated in 1938. Although he was given a basketball scholarship at St. Louis University, he played football as a walk-on, became the starting halfback, earned a varsity letter and ended up paying for school with a football scholarship. He received a prelaw degree, six days after Pearl Harbor, in December 1941.

A recruiter suggested students ought to sign up instead of being drafted. John agreed and became a U.S. Navy aviator and was soon an instructor in instrument flying in Pensacola and then Atlanta, Georgia, where he trained British pilots. John learned how to golf from Bobby Jones, an amateur golfer who won the Golf Grand Slam in 1930, at the Atlanta Country Club. John went to Lakehurst, New Jersey, to be in an MGM movie as a Navy flyer during that time. (The movie, starring Wallace Berry, was named Airship Squadron Four.) Also, he played football for the Iowa Seahawks, a U.S. Navy NCAA football team. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Byron White was a teammate; so was Forest Evashevski, who later became the head football coach at the University of Iowa. John and Esther married in Atlanta at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, and Esther taught school. They had three children together; Thomas, Carol and David.

In 1946, after the war, John and Esther went back to St. Louis for more school. He completed a three-year course in two years and received a magna cum laude J.D. degree in 1948. He was first in his class. (John considered himself to be an “average student” during high school and prelaw. “After the Navy,” he said, “I was always at the top of my class. I think the teaching and working with such sharp guys really made a difference.”)

John and Esther moved back to Sullivan, and he set up a private law practice. The town mayor, John Rebura, had run a grocery store when John was younger. John often delivered groceries from the store to his mother’s restaurant. Mayor Rebura asked John to be a city attorney. Ten years later, John became St. Clair’s city attorney as well. He was a city attorney for 25 years and was St. Clair’s attorney for 15 years. He was soon elected as vice president of the Bank of Sullivan.

John and a group of local business owners started the Sullivan Country Club in 1954. In 1960, he bought a major share in the bank from T.R. Shaffer, a mentor and longtime friend who was president of the Bank of Sullivan before John. In 1965, John bought a majority share in St. Clair’s Farmers & Merchants Bank. He was a lawyer and banker for the rest of his career and was the Bank of Sullivan’s president for almost 25 years. He also served as chair of the board of directors.

John was an outdoorsman and farmer who was interested in horses, cattle and game hunting. (He bought a 1,050 farm called Brazil Creek 18 miles from his home.) John’s creed was: “To whom much has been given, much is to be expected. We can’t take it with us, so it is up to each of us to try to make life better for someone else.”

John described his wife Esther, who passed away Oct. 26, 2001, as “the finest partner a person could ever have had.” She loved being a music teacher, planting maple trees and encouraging John to donate land and money to the school district. “If there’s a heaven and she’s there,” he said, “I’m ready to go.”

He passed away peacefully in the company of his family when he was 100.