John Wesley Hill, III was born to Rosemary Caldwell and John Wesley Hill Jr. May 12, 1945, in Ecorse, Michigan. He passed away peacefully at his home in Coarsegold March 25, 2025, at 12:15am after a long battle with bladder cancer. He was married to Shirlee, and they shared 49 years of marriage together. Shirlee, along with their daughter Gloria and partner Anthony and caregiver Taylor helped tend to him until the very end.

John attended Ecorse Elementary, Inkster Middle and Southwestern High Schools all in Michigan. He took private baton lessons with his sister Donna and could throw the baton very high and catch it. He also learned to twirl fire batons and performed at the Fox Theater in Detroit.

He and his sister Donna were responsible for selecting and training majorettes for the Southwestern High School Marching Band. He was also one of the children in the theater cast in The King and I, performing with Betty White in Detroit. John enjoyed playing the bugle and marching in the Thunderbird Drum and Bugle Corp. of Detroit, MI, performing in Detroit, Canada and many other cities.

Other activities he enjoyed growing up were Lessons on tap, ballet and dramatics with the late LaClaire Knox School of Performing Arts in Detroit. He participated in plays in high school, the debate team and helped to raise funds with the youth democratic organization "Young Democrats of America. "as well as the youth N.A.A.C.P.

After graduating high school, John joined the U.S. Navy, and later switched to the Marines and serve his country in the Vietnam War. While in Vietnam, for a short time he was missing and his mother saw him on TV. She called the station, and they located him in a hospital with Malaria. He returned home and studied to become an X-Ray Technologist. John was the first person to oversee a mobile X-Ray unit for the city of Detroit. He worked as an X-Ray Tech at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, San Francisco General Hospital, and retired from Kaiser Permanente in South San Francisco.

John and Shirlee were married February 17, 1976, and to this union were added 2 daughters Gloria and Christina. John had many hobbies including trains, photography with his father, bird watching, watching football and animals in nature. He loved music and working in the backyard of his Coarsegold home, especially when he got his riding lawn mower.

John is survived by his wife Shirlee, daughters Gloria and her partner Anthony, and Christina and her children, sisters Marguerite and Adelphia and husband Tim. He was predeceased by his parents and sister Donna.

John had requested no funeral flowers but would like everyone to bring a yellow flower to place on his casket as yellow was his favorite color.