John was the first child of Genevieve and John Little. (9 children) He attended St Leonard Catholic School. He was in the choir and an altar boy. John loved to sing. He attended East Detroit High School and Lake Shore High School.

He met his future wife Nancy in May of 1964. They went together all thru the rest of their school years. John joined the Navy at the age of 17. He went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill. And then was statiioned at Corpus Christi, TX as a hospital corpsman. He was then stationed aboard the Bon Hom Richard - aircraft carrier. He was assigned to helicopter rescue missions. John and Nancys first wedding date in June 1967 was postponed until Sept 19th , 1967 because he went to Viet Nam. It was a Tuesday night and 250 people attended their wedding. Their wedding was a great day for them. They leftthe day after for John's new assignment in San Diego, Calif. He was at Balboa Navel Hospital. It was in

San Diego that John found out that he was to be a father. John Phillip Edward was born at Camp Pendleton, CA August 31st 1968. John was then transferred to the Naval Hospital in San Diego, again orders for Viet Nam were there and Nancy and Johnny went home to Michigan to wait. This was Feb. 1969. John returned to a waiting family in 1970. He went once again to Viet Nam in 1971.

They had new orders to the reserve training center in Quincy, Ill. John used all of his spare state side time to study his real love "cooking". While in Quincy, Nancy became pregnant with their second child, Crystal Leah Marie. She was born at Mt. Clemens General in 1972.

John was in the Navy 16 years, he was an independent hospital corpsman. He was put out on a medical discharge due to the effects of agent orange. He has had a life long battle for his health since. The Service finally sent him a letter saying they recognized that he was in contact with agent orange and reinstated his pension.

When John got out of the Navy he went to Mesa College in California to study the Cullinary Arts and received his degree. He worked at several famous restaurants. Terantino's Fishermans Wharf and the Lake Arrowhead Hilton among them. He was in his glory. He pretty much let his wife Nancy free to do what she loved to do even though she moved him onto a pig ranch and adopted a "wild" mustang. He learned to be a rancher under protest - he really wasn't an outdoor person. She knew he must have really loved her to do this.

In 1983, John and Nancy opened the Mountain Cafe in Arrowbear Lake, CA. John specialized in Cajun Barbeque . His sauce is well known and he really loved to make it as gifts for his friends. In 1987, his health declined and they had to move back to Michigan. He worked at Hadley's for a while but couldn't keep up the pace.

In the past year, John has discovered a new love in the computer. He spent many hours producing a web site and establishing a strong link with family while finding new friends all over the world. Often he would forget to eat or sleep while he wrote articles and recipes for his weekly column.

John was a Jaycee in CA, where he recieved an award for outstanding board member. He was a Cub Scout leader and he was a father that took his kids to soccor, pop warner football, and baseball games. He was so proud of his children and he looked forward to holding grandchildren. In fact, he would always hold any available baby. He cried at sad movies, he was so sentimental. He told his wife every day (several times a day) how beautiful she was (even when she thought it wasn't true) and how much he loved her. He was so proud of and close to all of his (5) sisters. They met once a month for breakfast to keep up on all their families. His house was always open to family and friends that needed a place to stay or had hard times. He never said no to helping a friend out even when Nancy didn't want him to. His close friends were all shapes and sizes and ages, from all walks of life.