Meet the Artist

 John began life in the Leesburg community of central Mississippi.  He helps maintain a family farm there as well as a smaller one in Crossroads, south of Pelahatchie,  now that he is home from Alaska.  

In 1958, when he was seven years old, his parents  loaded up the car, hooked a trailer to it with all they owned inside, and  moved to Alaska after a friend who administrated a school in Fairbanks showed them slides of Alaska's deep snow, glaciers and mountains.  They were attending  Peabody College for teachers, (now Vanderbuilt College).  They drove the family to Alaska and found jobs teaching there.  John grew up in Alaska with summer visits to Mississippi staying  with his paternal grandparents in Leesburg.

He attended Mississippi College where he majored in Art Education.  At Mississippi College he met his wife,  Laura Lee Moore, who was born and raised in Natchez.  They taught in Natchez one year and then moved to the Aleutian Island of Adak in 1977 to teach.  Adak was a naval base where you could "almost" see Russia.  John taught art to over 300 students in grades 1-12 in a full blown art program.   His personal art specialized in silk screens, pen and ink, and block prints during those years.  

While on Adak he spent time hunting caribou and hauling in all the king crab and halibut the Everitts and their friends could eat using his 24 foot cabin cruiser.   Boating in the Bering Sea was always exciting, unpredictable and a challenge John loved to face.   His first daughter, Courtney, was born on Adak.  He used to laugh and tell people she would have to wear a map on her T-shirt to explain where she was born.

Four years on the island was enough of the wind swept Aleutians so the Everitts moved to the mainland and Anchorage in 1981 to continue  teaching school.   Two more children were added to the family while in Anchorage, Lana and Curtis.

John and his dad operated a salmon set net site in Cook Inlet in the summer for 17 years.  Since it was on a remote beach, John got his pilot's license and rebuilt an old Super Cub to fly the family and himself to the site.  Along with the difficult work and remote beach life, the family got to experience the joys of having wildlife right outside the cabin.  They shared the beach with moose, fox, eagles, brown and black bears, as well as many shore birds and different species of geese and ducks.  Three active volcanoes were nearby and there were frequent earthquakes and eruptions that affected fish camp as well as life in Anchorage.   (John and his family rode out the 10 point earthquake that rocked Alaska in 1964.)   Oil exploration was prevalent in Cook Inlet since the 1960's and many platforms were visible from the fish camp.  The family was part of the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement that was paid to the fishermen seventeen years after the spill.   John ran a jet boat for several years in Cook Inlet in addition to his airplane.  He ran stormy, tide ripped Cook Inlet and its surrounding glacial rivers that were shallow and full of sand bars.  The jet boat provided sport fishing opportunities for salmon, trout and halibut.  John also moose and bear hunted from that boat.   Dall sheep hunting was a passion when John was still able to climb mountains, but he always had a professional fly him in to the short, rough mountainside air strips.  The family enjoyed motorhoming when not at the fish camp.  It was a way to see more of the state as well as several longer trips through Canada and the lower forty eight. 

After twenty six years of Alaskan experiences, John and Laura Lee moved back to Mississippi, their home..

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