In Memory

John M. Lane

Passed away on December 12, 2015.



 
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12/17/17 11:25 PM #1    

Eunice Lundgren (Cote)

Thank you to Mike Manaige and Bill Glaser for notifying me of John's death.

He was one of the funniest and nicest guys in our class.  He had a great laugh and a huge heart.

 I am sure we all remember John and Joe McFarlane doing their funny imitation of Joe Friday and Bill Gannon. 

RIP John.  We miss you. 

 


12/20/17 04:35 PM #2    

Jean Remus (Arndt)

On, Lane-O...sweet friend and neighbor...not only one of the funniest people walking, but the best-hearted...and yes, Euni, the Dragnet bit that John and Joe did will always be a great laugh - they were quite the team...

A good soul, Lane-O was....RIP....


09/20/18 02:57 PM #3    

Michael Manaige

John Lane was my neighbor and best friend growing up.  His family moved to my neighborhood in 1963 after living in England for 4 years.  John introduced me to a new style of Rock & Roll - The Beatles. (which his family heard in England on the radio)  His sister Nancy had the very first Beatles album released in the United States which we listened to over and over.  John was a huge influence on me when it came to music, I still rememer playing "House of the Rising Sun" by Frijid Pink and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan on his brother Chuck's 3M Wollensak reel-to-reel tape player at volume "10".  The stereo was about as loud as John's purple 1967 G.T.O. (the "Lane Mobile") which the neighborhood had a petition against him to stop driving his G.T.O. down their street. Do you think that stopped John from driving in the neighborhood?  No way.  He would say something like "We have to Humor them".  John and I were also into listening to Black Sabbath, along with any type of heavy music in the 1970's.  As other classmates have mentioned, John was very funny and had a unique sense of humor.  I could go on and on about John's love for guns, collecting watches, Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" movies, and Dragnet, but I'll save that for another time.  John was the first one I know to get a Ruger 44 Magnum pistol.  I really miss him.

John and I would always call one another on our Birthdays, my Birthday is one day after his. The last time I heard from John was on November 6, 2015 to congratualate him on his 60th Birthday, he seemed in good spirits, made jokes about our Sunrise Park days, and didn't mention anything about his health. John and I were both good friends of Bill Glaser.  Bill and John were both heavily into gun collecting and would go to the Oakdale Gun range to try out their new purchases.  It's hard to believe that on December 12, 2015, John passed away only a month after I talked to him. You never know when it's your time to go.

 


07/15/19 10:32 AM #4    

Michael Manaige

See John Lane's 1967 Pontiac Purple GTO picture he drove during high school on my profile "Michael Manaige" on this website.  Unfortunately this web page will not let me put the picture on anything else but my page.


08/08/23 10:33 PM #5    

Kent Vilendrer

Lots of great comments here.  I got to know John in football.  He liked to clown around. We were both lineman and during practice we ran into each other, literally.  I swear when we hit each other, he would let out a Homer Simpson “D’oh!!”   He would also sometimes speak in rapid fire bursts. He would say something like: “HeyKent!” (pause) “YouHitMeKindOfLowThatTime!!” after which he would double over and moan for dramatic effect.

John was also extremely likeable and had a lot of self-confidence.  If he saw you in the hallway, he would call out your name and say “Hey Man, how’s it going??!!”  His recognition and genuine interest made you feel important.  John was like that later in life, too. 

Twenty some years ago I’m driving with my family on the freeway.  My Father & Mother-In-Law are with us (we were in a suburban). I come up on two guys cruising on big bikes side by side. They’re wearing half shells, bandanna face masks and wraparound shades. Bad asses I think.  I swing around them to the right lane for my exit. The closest biker turns and looks at me as I pass. Driving up the exit ramp I see the two of them barreling up behind me (did I get too close?). We come to a stoplight which has just turned red (damn, I should have run it!) The two BAs pull up beside me and I pretend I don’t see them. My Mother-In-Law derails the ruse... “Kent, one of those motorcyclists is trying to get your attention.”  (thanks!…. here we go.) I roll down the window. The rider lowers his facemask and the shades come off.  I immediately see that it’s Lane-O.  He says “Hey Kent, It’s John La.….” “Lane-O, I recognized you immediately. You haven’t changed a bit!” He launches into “IKnewItWasYou! IKnewItWasYou!  I’m riding down the freeway and I look over and I say to myself, that guy looks like Kent! I signal to my buddy Joe here to follow me because I had to find out whether it was really you! Sure enough!….”  We begin making small talk.  One of my kids waves from a backseat, John smiles and waves back. For a moment we are back in high school. The light eventually turns green.  “Opps! Gotta go!” he says. The mask goes up, the shades back on and he says “See you later!”, “You too John!”.  He roars off.

As I start to drive, I think “Wow, that was classic John.”….  From way in the back my 11-year-old daughter asks “Dad, do you really know those biker dudes???”  “Yeah Hon, I went to high school with one of them.” And then I add, “I used to ride a bike too back in the day”. She gets real quiet, which means she’s thinking… probably trying to conjure up an image of her nerd dad as a Bad Ass biker. I chuckle to myself. “Thanks John.”

 


08/10/23 11:50 AM #6    

Michael Manaige

Hi Kent Vilendrer,

    You were right about John Lane having a humorous side to him, he was that way when he was 8 years old. John also liked to greet people by a calling you by a name he thought was funny, usually making it up from your last name.  (that ran in the Lane family)  John called me "Malushdish" which he got from his brother Chuck.  The other guy on the motorcycle was most likely his brother Chuck. Chuck graduated high school in 1971. Both John and Chuck took trips on their motorcycles. Unfortunately Chuck died a few years before John did. 


02/26/24 05:56 PM #7    

Michael Manaige


02/26/24 06:07 PM #8    

Michael Manaige


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