From John’s Sister Beverly:

 

There are a couple of things I would like you to know about John.

 

1.       He was one of the greatest Elvis Presley impersonators I have ever known. As a boy he collected numerous records of Elvis. Since he loved playing the guitar, our grandfather made one for him. John would perform for us curling his lip, with a sexy look while shaking his legs and jerking his body while crooning, "Love Me Tender" and "You Ain ' t Nothing but a Hound Dog".

 

2.     John also loved bull fighting. We had a pet bull named Rondo. John started using blankets, towels or whatever he could find in training Rondo from a calf to charge towels, blankets, etc. He practiced this training when our parents were not at home.  One day while mother was hanging clothes outside, to bring in the freshness, Rondo saw her holding up a sheet and charged her. This time he was no longer a calf but a young bull with horns. She shooed him away and continue to hang the items, but Rondo kept coming for the items she was holding up. Finally she ran into the house and asked us what was going on.  John, confessed that he had trained Rondo to bull fight. From that point, Rondo got so out of hand charging us until we could no longer safely carry anything outside. Finally our dad had to put him down.

 

John was very loving and compassionate. If there was an injured bird or any other animal, he would try very hard to make it all better.

 

From Suzanne Little

 

This isn’t a funny story – but shows a lot about Lt. Norsworthy’s strength of character and integrity.

 

Lt. Norsworthy served on the Mountain View Weed & Seed Steering Committee and last spring we were notified we needed to send three representatives from our organization to the Weed & Seed conference in Arizona – a police department representative, a community representative and our staff person.  Lt. Norsworthy said he’d be willing to go if he could arrange to have his chemotherapy administered in Arizona while he was out of state . . . he made the arrangements, attended the conference and brought back great information for our organization.

 

That’s going above and beyond, if you ask me.

 

From Candace Sherwood

 

Both of my sons and myself hold John in the highest regard as a man, a friend and a hero.  He had a special relationship with my youngest son Gavin, who is Karen ' s godson..  When Karen and John were married, he quickly adopted John as his godfather.  He adored John as a person and also because John was a police officer and, in his words, "fought the bad guys."  When he was about 3 or 4 he got very excited whenever he saw a patrol car because he thought it was John.  One day, we were driving when he spotted a patrol car and asked me to hurry and catch up with it. When we did, Gavin looked in and then slumped down in his seat, obviously disappointed.  He told me it wasn ' t John.  He said, "that guy wasn ' t fancy like John."  I asked him what he meant, was it a different uniform?  He replied, "no, that guy wasn ' t fancy like John, he was just plain white like us."   John enjoyed this story as he had a great sense of humor. He also had the ability to listen, no matter what the story was, which I am sure helped him be a good cop as well as a good friend.  I remember one time when Gavin explained to John that he had decided to be a police dog when he grew up so he could be John ' s partner and help him catch the bad guys.  John didn ' t laugh at him - although I am sure he was biting his tongue.  He listened and he discussed the training that Gavin would need to go through to pursue his career as a police dog. He also told him practically that he wouldn ' t make much money.  Gavin will not grow up to be a police dog but he will grow up never forgetting that he knew a real life hero.  We will miss John.

 

From Mark and KC Carlson

 

On Friday nights after work we would meet Karen and John for what was supposed to be an appetizer and maybe drink.  It would always turn into dinner, drinks, dessert and long hours of what would be dubbed our as “FNR” – FRIDAY NIGHT RECAP. We would always share stories. But it didn’t seem to matter what kind of stories we all brought to the table. John could one-up each of us and keep us going all night with his.

One memorable night, John shared with us a story about an anesthesiologist that they found dead at home. John said, “The autopsy showed that he died from sniffing/smelling his own gas.” With a look of horror, I turned as white as a ghost, looked kind of queasy, uneasy and generally very disturbed at this. With all seriousness and sincerity I then asked what I thought we were all asking ourselves at that moment: “YOU CAN DIE FROM THAT?!?”   We laughed so hard that night and for nights to come.  Even days later we would just spontaneously laugh thinking about that moment at our Friday Night Recap.  Even today as we mourn we think of this moment and a smile just comes to our face.

We can not make it to John’s celebration of Life but will be there in mind and spirit.  We miss him, we remember him and we celebrate all the good times we had with him and thank him for touching our lives. 

 

Fondly.

 

Mark and KC Carlson

 

From Lieutenant Dave Parker

 

John was a great friend who cared deeply for the people he worked with and the victims of crime, especially children.  He was a great supporter of community involvement in our work.  I must say however that he was the last person you ever wanted to be near on April Fool’s Day.  His pranks were notorious and complex.  Three years ago I spent two hours explaining a math error on an overtime slip to the Internal Affairs Sergeant which John had arranged, with the Chief’s complicity on April 1^st.   John laughed ‘till the tears rolled down his cheeks…. What a sense of humor!  His wit and positive outlook will be sorely missed.

 

Thanks,

 

Dave Parker