John "JT" Thomas Poole

March 21, 2025, at the age of ninety.

He was born May 25, 1934, in Gordon County, Georgia to the late John Hunter Poole and Willie Mae Worley Poole Lemons. As a child living on a huge farm, he enjoyed hunting and the daily pleasures of farm life. He was a member of Oak Grove Baptist Church arriving early on Sundays to stoke the fires for service. JT was an avid reader especially of war history, graduating from Plainville High School where he was salutatorian of his class. He married Annie Frances Patterson on December 31, 1955, his loving wife of sixty-nine years.

After high school JT worked at Lockheed as an electronics technician traveling each morning from Gordon County to Cobb County to work. As anyone knows, work at Lockheed was a project-based job in which you worked crazy hours building airplanes to only be laid off after the project was completed. After experiencing this several times, JT took a correspondence course in television repair. After successful completion, he acquired a job with Atlanta City Schools who at the time was pioneering the new era of educational tv.

Working in a school system provided JT with many unforgettable experiences. One of his most memorable moments was when he lost his contact lens just as class change occurred. He said after being stepped on by hundreds of students, the lens fit better than ever! Another event happened on November 22, 1963. He had just finished repairing a classroom tv and turned it on to hear that John F. Kennedy had just been shot.

After working for Atlanta Public School for seven years, JT decided that he wanted to start his own tv repair business in Marietta, Georgia, where he was living at the time. In 1968, Marietta Color TV was opened. JT owned and operated Marietta Color TV on Clay Street for thirty-one years.

JT also served in the Georgia National Guard in Calhoun, Georgia for seventeen years leaving the service in 1969 as an E7 Platoon Sergeant. Throughout his service, he was known and teased about reading all the equipment manuals (he read every manual for every household item up until one month before he passed). But this quirky skill became valuable when the platoon was going to be evaluated using a new piece of equipment. No one knew how to fire the new gun, so JT was called in to read the manual, which he did. Then out in the field, he positioned the gun on the target and hit it dead on.

JT was preceded in death by four brothers, Lamar Poole, Clinton Poole, Randy Lemons and Neil Lemons and a sister Doris Harris.

He is survived by his wife, Annie Frances Poole, two daughters, Rita Mashburn (Steve), Theresa Poole and a son, John Poole; grandchildren, David Mashburn (Tianna), Daniel Mashburn (Jessica) and Lisa Addison (Johnathan); seven great-grandchildren and three step great-grandchildren.

Funeral service to honor the life of John Poole will be held Tuesday, March 25 at Winkenhofer Pine Ridge Funeral Home & Memorial Park, 2950 Cobb Parkway, N. Kennesaw, GA 30152, with Reverend Bobby Therrell officiating. Interment will follow at Greers Chapel Cemetery.

Mr. Poole’s family will receive family and friends Tuesday, March 25 from 2 to 4 pm with the service beginning at 4 pm in the Winkenhofer Chapel.

The following family will serve as pallbearers: David Mashburn, Daniel Mashburn, Thomas Meeks, Ronald Poole, Jerome Poole, and Todd Lemons.