By Forrest Newton
WINNEMUCCA - When Nevadans think of our state song "Home Means Nevada" they might also think of John Linscott, who for the most part has never lived anywhere else nor has he ever been interested in doing so.
"I'm definitely a Nevadan," he said. "Every time I go (out of state) I love Nevada more than ever."
Born in Smith Valley at the home of a midwife, Linscott, 74, spent his first 12 years growing up on a sheep ranch owned by his dad and uncle.
He and his family had their medical needs taken care of by a lady doctor and not only was Dr. Mary Fulstone's profession a bit unusual for females in her time, but she bore twins who went on to become famous.
"She had two daughters that were twins and they were the original Toni Twins," Linscott said. The Toni Twins advertised Toni Home Permanents in the '40s and '50s.
After a dozen years in Smith Valley he left his horse Skipper and moved with his family to Yerington where his grandfather was the blacksmith and where his dad had taken a job with Peoples Packing Plant. Soon his parents bought a soda fountain.
"It was called Friendly Center," Linscott said.
Eventually his dad sold the restaurant and the family moved to Reno. It was quite a change, but with sports being a big interest of his he fit in quickly competing at the bigger Northside Junior High School.
"Even though I was small I played football, basketball and baseball," Linscott said. "Baseball was my favorite."
Although he does not think of himself as a politician he has held office at times.
"I was elected the first (student body) president of the school at Central Junior High School in Reno," he said.
Linscott said that he had several campaign managers working hard to help him become the first president. That position allowed him to learn a lot about the how and why teachers and staff did the things they do.
"There was seventh, eighth and ninth (grades)," he said. "It was a real eye opener to know more about them (teachers). It was interesting."
As a student he learned how teachers became certified and put together lesson plans. He was then able to share what he had learned with the other students.
Reno High School was his next stop up the education ladder where his older sister Earlene had been one of the first students to attend the new school. The same school building is still in use today.
Linscott remembers he was one of about 350 students graduating in 1956, the year he moved the tassel to the other side of his cap.
Although he was the youngest of the two children born into the Linscott family he insists that he was not spoiled.
"My sister would tell you I was spoiled," he said, laughing.
The unspoiled teenager became the quarterback for the junior varsity team in high school, but baseball was really his game where he usually went on the field as pitcher or second baseman.
"It was a fast game. It was exciting," Linscott said. "When you have that ball coming at you at 90 some miles an hour it's not a slow game.
"I could throw a fastball and a curve and a change-up," he added. "I threw a knuckle ball every once in a while."
He went from high school graduation that same year to the University of Nevada, Reno for a semester, but during that time he was also working at Nevada Bell. Although his time at UNR was short, he remains proud of pledging the Sigma Nu fraternity he had joined. But the world of business had called and Linscott said yes to Nevada Bell, where he would stay until the day he retired.
"I went through their management programs and became a manager," he said. "In fact I became the telephone (business office) manager here in Winnemucca."
That was in about 1958 and Linscott later moved the business office from Winnemucca Boulevard into a two-story building on Melarkey Street. But a couple of years later he moved back to Reno to take a promotion to the Reno business office.
"More accounts and more responsibility," he said.
Linscott said his wife Sandy was glad to be back in the big city. They met when he began giving rides to school in his car.
"She was good-lookin,' had a good sense of humor," he said. "We would go to various places, mostly to the movies."
Mysteries, westerns and musicals were favorites and some of those categories fit in well with his favorite movie star Roy Rogers.
"I liked him and Dale (Evans)," Linscott said.
In 1958 he was finally able to marry the one he had been dating for the past couple of years as soon as she graduated high school.
Linscott continued his climb up the ladder with Nevada Bell the rest of his working life. From Reno he went to the Nevada Test Site just north of Las Vegas as a service engineer helping to put together telephone systems.
Later he was promoted to be an independent telephone companies representative, where he did cost studies of their relationship with Nevada Bell.
"It was very complicated," Linscott said. "Cost studies are not easy, but it was a very interesting job."
Although his heart remained with managing business offices, he also found a certain joy in each job he had while at Bell.
He said that working with the independent companies put him on the road some and allowed him to see various parts of the United States, but it also allowed him to return to his home state without being gone for years at a time.
He said that Sandy was never thrilled with all the traveling around the state and was most happy at home.
"She's a Reno girl," Linscott said.
After putting in several years as a company representative he went back into business office management, where he stayed until he retired from the Nevada Bell Reno office in 1989.
After retirement he put more emphasis on the game that can never be mastered - golf.
"I enjoyed it. Played in different golf tournaments around the state," Linscott said. "It was just a challenging game, very challenging."
And in a logic born of experience he noted that, "The main thing is to try to hit the ball straight and stay out of trouble. If you're not hitting the ball straight you're going to be in a lot of trouble."
Linscott was staying in the South Lyon Medical Center long term care facility in Yerington when his daughter Cherié Baker suggested that he transfer to Winnemucca so he could be closer to her, and he consented moving here a couple of years ago.
When he was in his 20s he discovered that he was having trouble running when being an official at football games, so getting checked out at the University of California Medical facilities in San Francisco they determined that he had a type of Muscular Dystrophy.
Although years later it would be found that he had an incurable very rare muscle disorder, the treatments he had been receiving for MD have helped a lot with the pains he had been having, enabling him to do some things he had not been able to do for some time.
"I don't see a lot of difference," he said, with the change in diagnosis.
But it did not keep him down. Linscott has been a busy man most of his working life, taking the hours necessary to do his job at Nevada Bell and then volunteering to help make his community a better place. He was president of the Reno Jaycees for some time when he lived in Reno and a member of the South Lyon Medical Center Hospital Board in Yerington when they lived there. His wife never knew when to expect him home.
"The only way I know if Johnny's been home is if the bed's unmade," Linscott said his wife would say.
His wife lives in their home in Fernley where they moved to have a little better access to Reno doctors and their daughter in Winnemucca. They have been married for over a quarter of a century.
Son Darrel Linscott is an architect living in Reno and their daughter lives in Winnemucca teaching in the Humboldt County School District.
Linscott said that Harmony Manor does a good job of taking care of its clients.
"They're pretty prompt. You have an opportunity every day to select what you want for a meal," he said.
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