WOODVILLE, WI – The Woodville American Legion Post 301 was nicely crowded last Friday night, November 3, 2023, to help Woodville native John Terkelsen celebrate his 90th birthday. The Legion hosted John and his musical friends as they played good time music for three hours with John singing with his beautiful deep voice and leading the band on guitar. All in all, there were 10 or so guys on and off that sat in on the birthday gig for Johnnie T.

John Terkelsen was raised on a dairy farm in rural Cady Township with one brother, Hanley. He graduated from Woodville High School in 1951. After high school John served two years in the Army stateside. In the Signal Corp he was trained to be a switchboard operator, although he said that he never really did that. He did many other things such as installing a public address system at the firing range, driving truck, doing KP, and guard duty.

In May of 1954 John married the lovely Rachel VanDien of Baldwin. Their marriage of 65 years was blessed with four children, Sheryl, Sue, Julie and John Jr.

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