Obituary

John P. Sexton, of Prescott, Wisconsin, succumbed to melanoma on October 11, 2005, at the age of 72.  He passed away peacefully at his Prescott home, with family present.

John was born in St. Paul on July 28, 1933, to Edward T. and Marie A. Sexton, then living in West St. Paul.  John was the third of five sons born to Ted and Marie, the eldest of which—Billy—died at age 17 from complications due to encephalitis.  John and his other four brothers (Jerry, Tom, Jim and Mike) grew up on a farm in West St. Paul, which their maternal uncles operated.  They all share happy memories of working in the fields from a young age, going to market, and learning many wonderful things from uncles John and Pete Wolters.  The boys lived in the farmhouse with their parents and maternal grandmother, Nathalie Verstraete, who had immigrated from the Netherlands at age 19.  Later in life, John realized that he still remembered a number of words from the Dutch dialect that his grandmother spoke.  He said that his first words were actually Dutch, rather than English.  John's father Ted worked as a pressman (printer), before buying a newspaper in 1949 and later opening a stationery store and then starting his own printing company— Sexton Printing.  All five brothers worked at the newspaper/printshop while growing up, and four of them, including John, ultimately made printing their career.  John and his brothers all attended Cretin High School, in St. Paul—an all-boys, Catholic, military school run by the Christian Brothers.  John made many great friends at Cretin, graduating in 1951.

John shipped out to Korea in 1953, headed for the Korean War.  As John told the story, he and some friends went down to the local draft board to volunteer, feeling quite noble.  The woman behind the desk shrugged, saying, "well, you were about to be drafted anyway".  John was lucky, in that the armistice that ended the war was signed on July 27, 1953, while he was on a troop ship on its way to Korea.  Because of the cease fire, John's time in Korea was relatively calm and he had many fond memories of that period of his life, always having lots of great stories to tell about his time in the Army.  In one story, he tells of being out hiking with a friend, and discovering that they were in a mine field only when they got to the edge of the field and saw the back of a sign warning of mines.  They had hiked all the way across the minefield without realizing that they were in it.  In late 1954, John's battalion was transferred to Japan—to Camp Drake, outside of Tokyo, where he stayed until being discharged in 1955.  Coming from the DMZ in Korea, John said that Tokyo was a real treat for everyone in his battalion.  For John's personal recollections of his time overseas, see his Korea and Japan web pages.  He returned to St. Paul in 1955, when he went to work for his father at the newspaper, and later at Sexton Printing.  He very much enjoyed socializing and was an active member of the St. Paul Jaycees.

In 1962, John met and married Claudette Cyr, who was widowed with two sons—Mike, age 6, and Joe, age 5.  Son Sean was born in 1964, when John and Claudette lived on Summit Ave. in St. Paul in a duplex.  In 1965, John left Sexton Printing to go to work for Webb Publishing, in St. Paul.  A year later, John and Claudette bought 12 acres of land and built a new house in Eagan, Minnesota.  John drew up the plans for the house and he and Claudette did most of the work of finishing the interior themselves.  They spent a full year getting the house ready, and moved in just one month before son Mark was born in 1967.  John also bought an old tractor, a John Deere "H" dating from the mid 1940s, using it to do lots of landscaping, farming, and miscellaneous chores on the acreage.  The kids all grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, and the characteristic putt-putt of the old John Deere was a common sound on the property.

In 1972, John left Webb Publishing to start his own typesetting business with Claudette—Sunset Graphics— which they ran out of their basement in Eagan.  They soon had as much business as they could handle, and had four employees working for them by the end of the first year.  After working out of the house in Eagan for two years, they moved to a larger building in West St. Paul and later to an office building near Holman Field.  In 1975, with a house full of boys, John and Claudette adopted 5-yr-old Denise, from Korea.  In 1977, the family grew again to include Natalie and Nicole, ages 8 and 9, also adopted from Korea.  John and Claudette ran Sunset Graphics for about 10 years, until 1982, when they decided to downsize and John returned once again to Sexton Printing. 

At Sexton Printing, the company now being run by brother Jerry, John was instrumental in getting the company into desktop publishing, as the industry was just beginning to make the transition from an analog to a digital process.  After a number of years at Sexton, John decided that he wanted to eventually work out of his home again, so he began designing a large addition to the house that would include a 2-car garage and a large office space on the second floor.  Other than having the foundation done by a contractor, John did all of the construction himself, single-handed, over the course of several years.  It was also around this time that John and Claudette served as hosts to a couple of foreign exchange students—first Steffi, from Germany, and then Yukako, from Japan.  Each lived with John and Claudette for an entire school year, becoming part of their extended family. 

In 1991, John left Sexton Printing to go back to working full-time with Claudette out of their new office at home. He began to specialize in converting databases into a publishable format, and in designing Web pages.  He learned an entirely new set of skills, including database and web programming.  He and Claudette gradually diminished their workload, though John continued to work on database publishing jobs through 2004.  In 1999, he and Claudette sold the house and acreage in Eagan and bought an earth-sheltered house on 3 acres overlooking the Mississippi River, just south of Prescott, Wisconsin.  John continued to be quite active at home with lots of projects, including building a detached garage in 2001.  He again built the entire structure single-handed—at the age of 68.  He also became quite active in designing and building web sites—both for himself (photos and stories of his time in Korea) and for others (the local church, as well as a site for his high school classmates).

John had many interests and passions, ranging from maintaining a vegetable garden in Eagan with his old tractors, to publishing web pages that described his time spent in Korea and Japan.  Mostly, he loved to work hard and create or build things that he could later look back on, feeling a sense of accomplishment.  He was very artistic and imaginative, but also exacting and meticulous—such that everything he created ended up being a thing of beauty.  The long list of projects, each a labor of love, included things like: the split-level house in Eagan, a Japanese streambed and bridge, a small horse barn with a natural stone foundation, the addition to the house in Eagan, a replica sports car kit, several oil paintings, the new garage in Prescott, and several web sites.

Another of John's passions was gardening.  He and Claudette had a large garden (about 1 acre) in Eagan for many years, on which they grew a wide variety of vegetables, many of which Claudette canned.  John also loved sharing his garden—he habitually invited friends and coworkers to come out to plant their own gardens in the larger area that he had plowed.  Especially meaningful to John were the couple of years that his aging uncle John Wolters came out to do a little bit of gardening once again.

John was also a voracious reader.  In between running his business, working on various projects, and being a husband and Dad, he somehow found time to buy and read hundreds of books.  One of his projects, before building the addition on the house in Eagan, was to convert the existing garage into a library and he easily filled it over time with books that he'd read.  He had a special passion for history and was extremely knowledgeable about many different historical periods and events.

John was preceded in death by his father Ted, mother Marie, brother Billy, uncles Pete and Tom, and many other beloved uncles and aunts.  He is survived by his wife Claudette, sons Mike, Joe, Sean and Mark, daughters Natalie, Nicole and Denise, brothers Jerry, Tom, Jim and Mike, 12 grandchildren, and 19+ first cousins.

Friends and family will remember John for his infectious charm and vibrant spirit.  He loved spending time with family and friends, and was always full of energy—telling stories, or reminiscing about old times.  Few people ever visited with John and left without having a big smile on their face.  He also loved spending time with kids and was constantly chatting with them, or teasing.  He inherited both the Irish charm and the love of being silly with kids from his father Ted.  We'll also all remember John for his unbounded kindness and deep love for family and close friends.  To many who knew him, he was the kindest, most unselfish person that they'd ever known.

Visitation Thursday, 4-8 PM, at Hill Funeral Home in Prescott, WI (1339 Orrin Rd).  Funeral mass, Friday, 10:00 AM at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Prescott, WI (269 Dakota St. S).  Lunch immediately following the mass, at the church.  Burial Friday, 1:30PM at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.  Reception immediately following burial, at 934th Air Lift Wing Club (formerly Fort Snelling Officer's Club), Highway 5 and Post Rd.

Memorials preferred to Oxfam International (www.oxfam.org), Heifer International (www.heifer.org ), or the American Melanoma Foundation (www.melanomafoundation.org). 

Hill Funeral Home (715) 262-5404.

Obituary also published in Star Tribune, 13 Oct, 2005.