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<\/a><\/p>\nJohn was born on July 14, 1945 in Palo Alto, CA to John Laucci Sr. and Milbria Pirtle, growing up in Redwood City, CA. He attended Lincoln School, then Clifford and then San Carlos High and after high school, his father wanted him to go into his insurance business in San Francisco, which he tried briefly, but much to his father\u2019s dismay, it just wasn\u2019t in John\u2019s cards. He loved the outdoors, history, reading and photography and decided to try his hand at college. He first went to Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR, but perhaps partied a little too hard and was asked to seek his educational endeavors elsewhere. He then went to Yampa Valley College in Steamboat Springs, CO to major in\u2026skiing.<\/p>\n
In the 1960\u2019s his parents bought land in Mountain Ranch, CA and built a home there. John fell in love with the area, especially Mokelumne Hill, and put down some roots after his college experiences. He ended up working at the Hotel Ledger, meeting all the wonderful people that would become family \u2013 the Cannons, Wierzbowskis, Harpers, Falveys, Bourlands, MacDonaghs, Del Ortos, McCartneys and so many others. However, most importantly, he met the woman that would become his beloved wife, Carla. In 1976, they married in Vegas and built an amazing log cabin, the first in Calaveras County, close to the home John\u2019s parents had built.<\/p>\n
Their daughter, Rosa, was born in 1978 and the log cabin became a home full of love, laughter, Burrito Pigouts, hot tubbin\u2019, Jimmy Buffett music and general shenanigans. During this time, John found his passion in photography, cooking and leather working. In 1989, the family moved to Mexico to run a restaurant, but when that didn\u2019t pan out, they returned to Calaveras County, settling in Angels Camp where John and Carla ran Joaquin\u2019s Mexican Restaurant, which became a delicious staple in the community. From there, he was the founding chef at Ground\u2019s in Murphys and ended his successful cheffing career at The Blue Coyote in Arnold. Residing in Arnold since 1997, John continued his self-taught leather working techniques to create the most amazing hand-tooled, molded and laced leather bowls, trays, and sometimes furniture.<\/p>\n
After leaving the commercial kitchen scene, he purchased Highland Books in Arnold and fulfilled a long-time dream of owning a bookshop, and once again, became a pillar of the community. At the shop, he could work on his leather and read while the bookshop dog, Deuce, snoozed in the corner. After the bookshop closed in 2013, John officially retired, focusing on his leather work and cooking for his family. After the devastating passing of his love, Carla, in 2017, John moved in with his daughter, Rosa, in Crescent City, CA where he lived out the rest of his days among the beaches and redwood forests of Northern California.<\/p>\n
During his time there, an unexpected discovery was made in 2019 \u2013 through Ancestry.com DNA tests, he found out that he had another daughter, Tamara Ewing, who had been looking for her biological father for quite some time. It turns out that a romantic encounter while in Colorado led to Tamara, but he had no knowledge of her until then. Ten years older than Rosa, Tamara was welcomed with open arms into the family and we are so thankful that we\u2019ve found each other.<\/p>\n
Anyone that has met or known John, knows what a kind, funny, generous, talented, loving, goofy and all-around wonderful human being he was. The world will be a little dimmer without his light in it and will be missed by all. He is survived by his daughters, Rosa and Tamara, and cousins in Oklahoma and the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Due to the dual communities he became part of, there will be two celebrations for John:
\n7\/12\/25 \u2013 Turner Park, San Andreas, CA
\n7\/26\/25 \u2013 Smith River, CA<\/p>\n
Please keep an eye on Rosa\u2019s Facebook for details or email her directly with questions or if you want to contribute something to the celebrations at rlaucci@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Hit \u2018em where they ain\u2019t, John. We\u2019ll miss you always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arnold, CA…It is with a heavy heart to announce the passing of John Laucci, long-time Calaveras County resident, chef and bookstore owner, on May 10, 2025 at the age of 79 from complications with congestive heart failure. John was born on July 14, 1945 in Palo Alto, CA to John Laucci Sr. and Milbria Pirtle, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,20,37,1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels-camp","category-arnold","category-featured","category-mountain-ranch","category-news","category-obituaries","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/481197006_8989292157863527_9137239569233962634_n-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192116,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192113\/revisions\/192116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/192115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}