John Sr. was a cotton farmer and also ran a sorghum mill and made the best molasses you would ever eat. He sold molasses to Ira Sullivan for his "Busy Bee" Cafe in Lonoke and other businesses and families of the area.
John Jr. attended school at Oakdale until the 11th grade when he went to Carlisle where he graduated in 1943.
From high school he went right into the Service. He received 14 weeks of basic training, spent Christmas with his family in 1944 and was sent "over there". He was in the 4th Infantry Division, Old Patton's Army, and he saw action at the Battle of the Bulge.
Mr. Pearson said, pointing to a scar on his head, "This is where I was shot, not bad enough for them to put a plate in my head, but it got me out of service." He remembers an old colonel in the hospital at Memphis telling him, "I wish I had a hole in my head like that."
