John was born in 1950 in Centralia, Washington, where he grew up with seven sisters and attended Tumwater High School. He enlisted in the Navy in 1969 at 18 years old. He served in the Vietnam War from 1969 - 1971 and was stationed at Cam Rahn Bay. He got out in February 1963 and moved to the Tri-Cities to farm with his dad, Cleve, in Block 15, not knowing D’Ann Calaway had been growing up not far away.
D’Ann went to school at Pasco High School and graduated in 1974. She soon got a job at The Merrill’s Corner Café as a waitress while she attended college at Columbia Basin College. John and his buddies stopped in daily for lunch on his break as a hay farmer. They soon began dating and would marry in 1977 in Eltopia. D’Ann worked at Fishbach/Lord Electrical until she became a homemaker in 1979 to raise their daughters. John continued to farm until 1980. He then worked at Irrigation Specialist until he started his own irrigation company, Ramsey Aluminum Pipe Repair. He got his first job in the RV industry in 1985, where he soon became impassioned to start his own company. In 1997, he opened called Broadmoor RV SuperStore.
John and D’Ann have four daughters, Kimberly, Jill, Amanda, and Kelsie, four sons-in-law, Travis, Joe, Jason, and Skyler, fifteen grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren who all live in the Tri-Cities area.
They love the community they live in and realize without the support of the people of the Tri-Cities, they wouldn’t be able to give back. They have a few organizations that are especially close to their hearts, including Special Olympics Washington, Rascal Rodeo, and Washington State University. They also love to support the stock sales at the Connell, Othello, and the Benton Franklin Fair.