Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-16
JOHN L. MARTIN LOSES BRAVE
STRUGGLE AGAINST DISEASE
Capital Newspaper Man Dies
in AsheviIle After Eight
Year Battle.
Will to Live, Against Great
Odds, Has Inspired
Friends Here.

John Laurence Martin died early
today after eight years of struggle
against a dread and progressive dis
ease in a sanitarium at Asheville, n.
c., bringing to a close the career of
a man whose counsel had been sought
in high places and whose unflagging
courage was a never-failing source of
inspiration.
For IL years John Martin was a
reporter of The Star, covering" the
District Building. the Capitol run"
and many other important assign
ments. His contacts as a newspaper
man brought him into touch with all
classes of life of the Capital, On
many occasions his experience as
newspaper man brought him into con-
ferences with municipal heads, in
which his suggestions were valuable
and have entered into the civic de-
velopment of Washington.
A little more than FIVE years ago
JohE Martin left The Star and Wash
ington. For three years he and the
physicians whom he had consulted
had known something was wrong with
his bodily machinery. Diagnosis fail
ed TO show any immediate danger,
until one morning he failed to appear
at The Star Office. Friends went to
his hotel room to find him rolling and
tossing in fever, characteristic red
spots in his cheeks. A thorough ex-
amiation. in Washington and Balti-
more, convinced him that the enemy
he had been fighting for three years
had gained on him at last
Hoped to Come Back.
He spent six weeks in the quiet at
af -; "a. in T
isville, KY, building up his strength
for the trip to Asheville, where ply
sicians hoped the bracing mountain
air might combine with his rugged
courage to bring him back from the
brink of death. lie spent more than
Ave years in Asheville-years of dog
ged determination to live, frightened
with the healing vision of a host of
friends in Washington and elsewhere
who never gave up hope that John
Martin would come back.
His spirit beat the white plague,
but he died today. the victim of
uremic poisoning. which developed in
his wasted frame a few days ago
With him at his bedside were his
parents and his faithful nurse, Rosa
lie Cross of Baltimore. Outside his
bedroom were other friends-the birds,
who knew John Martin, nature lover.
In other years they had been the
subject of sketches by John. written
from his bed of pain in collaboration
with Jim Hay, another Washington
man who spent several months at
Asheville and Is now back in the
world of work.
On each Of the five pain.ridden birth.
days he spent in the North Carolina
mountains messag of cheer and co,,r
age and hope came to him from the
highest in the land down TO the more
humble friends, whose hopes were
with him in the fight. On not one,
but on many occasions, messages
went from the White House to John
Martin, at Asheville. From President
Coolidge, from the governors of sew.
eral States. from many members OF
Congress, from his one time intimates
in the business and newspaper world
OF the Capital. from other men in high
places in the official life of the Ma.
ton, humanity stretched out it's hand
OF encouragement to John Martin.
More than that, for one man in
Washington, every day of the more
than f1ve years Martin spent at Ashe.
vile, carried out an unspoken pledge
at the time the latter left the Capital.
Isaac Cans, former president of the
Chamber of Commerce. and a leader
In the civic affairs of the Capital.
never missed writing John Martin
every day. Bright, cherry, newsy let.
tiers, carrying to Martin the news of
the work-a.day world he had left.
Your character and your charm were
always so outstanding that every
body that came under. your spell at