| Notes |
Excerpt from Dallas Morning News: "Funeral services will be held at 2 pm Friday at the McFarland farm at Ladonia, Fannin County, for John Allen McFarland Jr. 32, Dallas attorney. He was found shot to death at this home at Lewisville, Denton County, Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The father of McFarland found his son's body about 5 p.m. A note found near the body related that the younger McFarland was "tired of living." the AP said. McFarland was born inDallas and reared in Ladonia. He received a law degree from Southern Methodist University in 1950 and lettered there in both football and basketball. He also attended the University of texas. McFarland was a fromer assistant district attorney in Dallas...."
Notes on John Allen from relations:
Johnny was beloved by everyone. A star athelete, scholar, and sadly, also schizophrenic. His struggle with this disease led to his suicide, something the family would never discuss during that generation.
Note from his cousin Gordon in 2008: John Alan had paranoid schizophrenia. He spent literally years in John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. That hospital was the largest and best psychiatric hospital in the state. Johnnie as we called him, was finally able to leave and return to live with Uncle Doc. He was fine for two or three years. Uncle Doc came home one evening to find Johnnie dead from a self inflicted shotgun blast to his head. Uncle Doc told me a few years later that Johnnie had left a long letter telling his dad how much he loved him. He said that the "Demons" were coming back and that he just could not bear going back to the hospital. It was about that time that a new drug, thorazine, would eventually empty the psychiatric hospitals of schizophrenics, Today, there is still no better drug. What a loss...
|
1922 - 1955 (32 years)
