John Jay Teets II

     John Jay Teets II was born on 14 April 1941 in Buckhannon, Upshur, West Virginia.^1,3 He is the son of John Jay Teets and Dortha Irene Wilfong.^2,1 John Jay Teets II married Donna Jeanne Raynes, daughter of Calvin Brent "Jay" Raynes and Dorothy Rosabell "Rose" Johnson, on 13 October 1962 in Loch Lynn Heights, Garrett, Maryland.
     John went to grade school at the elementary school on the corner of Camden Avenue and Kanawa Street, then to Junior High on Camden Avenue, and then Buckhannon-Upshur High School, graduating in 1959 in the first class to graduate from the "new school" in Tennerton (now a Junior High). John's big classes in high school were math and chemistry, and of course, baseball and basketball for the Buccaneers. He drove the "coolest" Ford in town, a 1958 Ford 4-door hardtop with those long 7-foot "Mercury" skirts and a continental kit on the back. He also had to work at his dad's gas station up by Feola's Flowers every weekend for the privilege of driving the car on Saturday night and on other special occasions.

He was named 1st-Team All State Baseball Team in West Virginia in 1958 and again in 1959. Also, John led the good old B-U basketball team in scoring his senior year and was 1st-Team All Conference for the Bucs.

The college scouts from Southern Methodist University (SMU), West Virginia University (WVU), and West Virginia Wesleyan came calling, and John ended up staying in Buckhannon so he could play for Wesleyan Bobcats (actually, in retrospect, John was too "small town" to take on SMU or WVU).

In his college days at Wesleyan, John majored in Math, Physics, and Chemistry, and of course, baseball and basketball (actually, he majored in Donna, but that comes later). John was one of two freshman (the other was Bill Grimes) to make the varsity basketball team in the fall of 1959. That year, the Bobcats ended up 34-1, losing in the semi-finals of the national NAIA basketball finals in Kansas City. John was all-conference West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) for four years in baseball, and was co-captain of the Bobcat basketball team in 1962-63 with Grimes. John was also very proud to be named to the WVIAC 50 year All-Time All Conference Baseball Team. Grimes went on to become the first President of ESPN (yes, the sports channel we can't do without). Guess I turned out to be the small-town guy again...

But the best deal of John's college years was meeting Donna Jeanne Raynes. Donna is the daughter of Jay Brent Raynes (deceased in a motorcycle accident when Donna was 2 years old) and her step-father James Harclerode (deceased 2002) and Rosabell Harclerode who were married for 55 years (Rose later lived with Donna and John in Austin until her death in May 2006.). Donna was born on (can I say this?) April 13, 1944. Yes, John and Donna's birthdays are one day apart! Birthdays were usually celebrated on HER birthday, right? Right. Oh, well.

John met Donna at a dance. Yes, there were such things as community dances where the young folk could get together, talk, dance, and if they were lucky, maybe go for a ride in their parent's car to the local drive-in restaurant and get some pizza pie! Well, John just couldn't stay away from the best-looking B-U cheerleader there ever was! And she could dance like nobody's business!

John and Donna got engaged in his sophomore year (with great consternation from her "dad", because John was a college boy), and married Oct 13, 1962. He asked her for her hand at West's Drive-in movie theater. Awesome.

John III was born in 1963, and John II had to leave a few days after the birth to go play professional baseball in Arvida, Canada (affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates). Donna later arrived with John III by propeller airplane (a big deal back then), her first trip ever in an airplane. We had a great time in Canada that summer, and learned just a little French in the process.

In the fall of 1963, John attended WVU on a Teaching Scholarship (taught College Algebra to undergraduates) which paid $60 a month. He also worked weekends at a filling station (experience from Buckhannon got him the job), and worked evenings 7-12PM at the computer center. We needed the money, and all those odd jobs helped us make it. WVU coach Jim Harrick came after John to be an assistant coach on the baseball team (John had gone 4-0 against WVU in his four years against them). After one year in graduate school, John got a job offer from IBM as a computer programmer, and it surely changed their lives. They moved to Endicott, New York. John worked at IBM in Owego, and later in Endicott. Donna also worked at IBM in Endicott. Shortly after moving to Endicott, Robert (1965), and then Darren and Duane (1969) were born. In 1977, they made the decision to move to Austin, TX with IBM. Will never forget that in 1977, Endicott set the national record for "fewest sunny days" at 43 sunny days (for an entire year!) -- and Austin AVERAGED 304 sunny days every year). That was enough for them!

The Teets lived at 10905 Spicewood Parkway for 23 years, then moved down the street (to #4 at the Spicewood golf course) in December 2000. In February 2007 they moved to 8908 Fairway Hill Drive, which is on #11 on the golf course at Balcones Country Club (you can see where these homes are by looking at this map).They love it there, and can watch the golfers go by every day, and John fiddles with his landscaping (or genealogy) while Donna plays golf with her shiny red golf cart with the fancy top! No one in the entire world loves golf like Donna Teets! She's now famous, you know...she had a hole-in-one in March 2004 on Spicewood #17, 120 yards with a 7-wood! Made the Austin American-Statesman golf column! (guess this is her 15 minutes of fame?).

John Jay Teets II was educated in 1963 in Buckhannon, Upshur, West Virginia; He attended West Virginia Wesleyan College from 1959-1963, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, with minors in Physics and Chemistry.¹ He was educated in 1964 in Morgantown, West Virginia; He also attended West Virginia University towards a Masters Degree in Mathematics.