John Robert Bowman was born on March 18, 1935; the first born on John Joseph Bowman and Florence Penn Bowman.  They quickly nicknamed him Jack, so there would be no confusion between father and son.  Daddy was born with blonde hair and green eyes; the only one in the family that I know of with green eyes.  As he got older, his hair darkened to brown.  He was naturally fair-skinned, much like my brother and I; but he developed a permanent tan after he began a job that required him to spend the majority of his day outdoors.  After Daddy was born, my aunt Jean and Uncle Jimmy followed.  And then when Daddy was nineteen years old, there came a surprise baby.  Uncle Joey.  They were very, very close.  He adored his younger brothers and sister; and was very protective of them until the day he died.  Daddy never finished high school.  He dropped out of the ninth grade when he was sixteen years old.  I asked him about that once, and he told me that he had stayed till he was sixteen, because the school needed a cheap janitor.  Daddy met Angelina Rella when the sixteen year old was working as a soda jerk at a ice cream/soda shop named Roberts.  He was nineteen at the time, in 1954.  He had the whole Marlon Brando/ James Dean look going with the motorcycle, leather jacket; the whole nine yards.  He got her attention right away.  They got married four years later.  But, that's another chapter.