Introduction

Biography

John was the son of Jo­seph Stuck­ey Ov­er­holt and Han­nah Wag­ler, and hus­band of Ve­ra Ma­rie Som­mers.

As a child, John was in­tro­duced to his fa­ther’s per­son­al col­lect­ion of Gos­pel songs and hymns, which was to have a mark­ed in­flu­ence on his lat­er life. He and his twin bro­ther Joe were ear­ly ex­posed to the Am­ish-Men­non­ite tra­di­tion of hymn sing­ing and prais­ing wor­ship.

An ear­ly ca­reer in Chris­tian ser­vice led to a two-year pe­ri­od of re­lief work in Po­land af­ter World War II. Dur­ing that pe­ri­od he be­gan to ga­ther ma­ny Eu­ro­pe­an songs and hymns as a per­son­al hob­by, not real­iz­ing that these se­lect­ions would be­come in­va­lu­able to the Chris­tian Hym­na­ry (the larg­est Men­non­ite hym­nal), com­piled 1960–72, with 1,000 songs, hymns and cho­rales.

Overholt’s wife Ve­ra, an ac­comp­lished so­pr­ano, was not to be out­done by her hus­band’s cre­at­iv­ity, and com­piled a hym­nal of 156 se­lect­ions en­tit­led Be Glad and Sing, di­rect­ed to child­ren and youth, and first print­ed in 1986.

During this lat­er ca­reer of hymn pub­lish­ing, Ov­er­holt found time for Gos­pel team work through­out Eur­ope, in­clud­ing vi­sits to Bel­gi­um, Swit­zer­land, France, Ger­ma­ny, Po­land, the Sov­iet Un­ion and Ro­ma­nia.

In 1957, Ov­er­holt was called to Chris­tian min­is­try and be­came co-pas­tor of a Bea­chy Am­ish-Men­non­ite Church in Sa­ra­so­ta, Flo­ri­da.