Since he was 2, leg braces and crutches were John Jennings' companions.

But he didn't let the polio that ravaged his body as a young man consume his spirit or his life, said his family.

"He believed that just because you had a disease, that didn't define who you were," said his wife, Robin Stahl Jennings.

John Jennings, 54, editor of the Blairsville Dispatch for nearly 30 years, died Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, at his Unity Township home.

 
He was born Sept. 29, 1951, in Greensburg, a son of the late Robert W. and Regina M. Jennings.

Mr. Jennings was one of three siblings who contracted polio as children. Their photograph appeared in The Pittsburgh Press.

"We all got it about the same time," said brother Walter Jennings, 56, of Washington, Pa. The third sibling, Thomas, died at age 13.

Walter Jennings said he always admired what his brother was able to accomplish despite the braces and crutches.

Besides being a newsman, Mr. Jennings was a lay minister, serving at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Vanderbilt, Fayette County, and sang duets with his wife and as part of a four-part a cappella group.

"He didn't let his leg braces hold him back at all," his brother said.

Robin Jennings recalled that she met her husband at the Dispatch in 1979. At first they didn't get along, she said, because he thought she wanted his job.

Then he learned she wasn't interested -- she went to work for the Tribune-Review, a sister newspaper. Over time, Jennings said, she came to realize "that he's not so bad," and he learned the same about her.

They were married Sept. 20,1980, after a first date at Wendy's and the movies.

"We had a year and three months to get used to each other," Jennings said of the time between when they met and married.

The couple observed their 25th anniversary in September.

Jennings, an avid singer, kidded that before she could marry her husband, he had to show her how well he could carry a tune.

"If he couldn't sing with me, we wouldn't be compatible," Jennings joked.

His baritone voice was good enough, and the couple sang duets together in church and at various other functions. They also sang with the Westmoreland Choral Society.

"He had a beautiful voice," said Helen Auman, who with her husband, Richard, joined the Jennings in the a cappella group. "He was a really good friend."

Jennings said at about age 50, her husband heard another voice -- God's -- and became a lay minister.

"He had a natural way of doing public speaking," she said.

He also used traits learned in his career as a newspaper journalist to help minister to others, including how to talk to people, his wife said.

The Rev. J. Charles MacPherson III, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Murrysville, served as Mr. Jenning's mentor because of church requirements involving lay ministers.

But MacPherson said he viewed Mr. Jennings more as a colleague.

"He had a beautiful voice, a beautiful spirit," MacPherson said. "He had the kind of attitude that there wasn't anything he couldn't do.

"He was full of energy and enthusiasm. There are just not enough good words to say about John."

Jennings said her husband was diagnosed earlier this year with cardiac amyloidosis, a disorder caused by an abnormal protein in the heart tissue; it results in decreased heart function and other complications. He was awaiting a heart transplant when he died.

Mr. Jennings was an organ donor, and because of both his polio and heart condition, donated his body for research, "so it might help somebody else," his wife said.

Mr. Jennings is survived by his wife, Robin Stahl Jennings; a sister, Anne Jennings Thompson, of Miami; and brothers and their wives, Robert and Corra Jennings, of Los Angeles, and Walter F. and Rosemary Jennings, of Washington, Pa.

A memorial service is planned for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, at the First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg.

Family asks that donations be made to the Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 75133, Chicago, Il. 60675-5133, or on the Web at rotary.org, and that the Polio Plus Program be specified in either case.

Donations also may be made to the mission fund at the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Vanderbilt, Pa.