John Quincy Adams Graham

Longtime Bonner County resident John Quincy Adams Graham has passed away. He was 84.

He was born Aug. 8, 1923, to Irene Adams and George S. Graham in Globe, Ariz.

John’s mother was a direct descendant of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the second and sixth presidents of the United States.

John attended grade school in Globe, Ariz., until the family moved to Orange, Calif. In 1937, during the Great Depression, John attended Santa Ana High School until the outbreak of World War II when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served in the South Pacific for four years as a hard hat Navy diver, becoming one of the first aqualung divers in the Navy.

During the war he married Georgia Lee Stewart in San Francisco on Dec. 10, 1943, culminating a 10-day courtship; they were married until she preceded him in death in March 1985.

He pursued diving as a hobby after the war when he settled in Half Moon Bay, Calif., raising cattle and farming.

When farming didn’t prove out, he became a mechanic working for Ford Motor Company. In 1954 he shifted to Southern California and opened up a muffler shop in Laguna Beach, Calif., then in 1965 he moved to Sagle, Idaho, raising cows and working for Pack River Lumber Company as a millwright at their Colburn lumber mill. An accident forced him to retire early, starting a very long retirement until his death on Monday, April 21, 2008.

Also preceding him in death was his foster son John (Jack) Russell late of Mesa, Ariz.

John is survived by his only child, John Q. Graham Jr., and his wife Sandra Graham of Trout Creek, Mont.; two grandchildren John Q. Graham III, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Jeffrey Stuart Graham of Opaki, New Zealand, and his long-time love and partner, Berniece Musgrave of Sheridan, Wyo.

May he rest in peace.

Family and friends are invited to sign John’s online guest book at www.coffeltfuneral.com Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Coffelt Funeral Service.