“Coach” John Floyd Whitmire (80), of Zirconia, North Carolina, son of the late Boyce A. Whitmire, Sr. and Patricia B. Whitmire, heard the final buzzer and completed his game on Saturday, January 15th, after holding the ball against thymic carcinoma for nearly two years. He was born May 28, 1941, in Hendersonville, and passed away in the company of his wife and son at Pardee Hospital.
John was preceded in death by his brothers, James “Jim” Whitmire, Guy “Pat” Whitmire, and Boyce “Blondie” Whitmire, Jr.; brother-in-law, Fred Jackson; sister-in-law, Pam Whitmire; and father-in-law, James Sams.
A proud alumnus of Hendersonville High School Class of 1959, John graduated with a bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University in 1964. He previously attended Western Carolina University for two years before realizing that finishing his degree in a dry county was just too much to ask.
A teacher, coach, mentor, and friend, Coach John touched the lives of literally generations of Henderson and Transylvania County youth. After an initial year at Hendersonville Junior High, he spent two decades teaching history and coaching at Edneyville Junior High and High Schools. He loved basketball, compiling 19 out of 20 winning seasons with a 70% winning percentage. But even more than winning, he loved his players – who formed an extended family through the decades – and teaching kids how to play basketball the right way, with discipline and commitment. His care for imparting the fundamentals of the game began as a counselor at the Elks Camp for Boys in his youth and led him to continue teaching basketball camps well into his 70’s.
After his initial career in the classroom and gym, John began a new kind of teaching as a Driver’s Education Specialist in 1984, supervising the training of all the school bus drivers in Henderson and Transylvania Counties for the next 20 years. He viewed this deep responsibility for teaching those who transported all the counties’ public schoolchildren as another opportunity to teach people how to do things the right way.
After his retirement, Coach couldn’t stay away from the basketball court, returning to help mentor another generation of kids as an assistant basketball coach at North Henderson and East Henderson High Schools. He also continued his service to the community in his retirement, joining the Kiwanis Club of Hendersonville and quickly becoming a member of the “outlaw” table with other notorious Henderson County troublemakers.
A keen sense of justice led John to stand up for the economically and racially disadvantaged, and others who were unable to do so for themselves, throughout his personal life and career, and he will be remembered by many as a surrogate father figure. He was particularly proud of his induction into both the Henderson County Education Foundation and Hendersonville High School Halls of Fame, and for the only District AA Basketball Championship in Edneyville’s history.
John cared immensely for his family, which was his pride and joy, and he also harbored a deep love for Wake Forest University – his father and son’s alma mater – and for the Atlanta Braves. And he particularly enjoyed ribbing his Republican friends about all the ways in which they were wrong or misguided.
John’s intense concern for doing things the right way in basketball and in life, paired with his incomparable story-telling and sense of humor, will be deeply missed, but his family could not be prouder of his legacy.
He is survived by his loving wife of 48 years, Jimmie Lynn Whitmire, of Zirconia, their son John F. Whitmire, Jr., Ph.D. (Heather), and granddaughters Cassandra N. “Cassie” Whitmire and Alexandra M. “Allie” Whitmire, all of whom were the lights of his life; brother, William “Bill” Whitmire (Louise); sister, Patricia “Sis” Jackson; mother-in-law, Norma Sams; sisters-in-law, Jeanette Whitmire, Shirley Whitmire, Tammy Creasman (Blake), and Jamie Norman (Brent); brothers-in-law, Norman Sams (Tami), Perry Sams (Kelly), Jason Sams (Kim), and Patrick Sams (Wendy); a number of nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and nephews; and innumerable “adopted” ball players from the 1960’s through the 2010’s.
A celebration of John’s life will be held later in the spring.
Donations may be made in remembrance of Coach John to the Pardee Hospital Foundation (https://www.pardeehospitalfoundation.org/), with a memo designating the gift to the Cancer Center, whose care and support over the past two years the family sincerely appreciates; to the Hendersonville High School Class of ’59 Scholarship Fund; or to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (https://www.stjude.org/give.html).
