Editing John Holmes (actor) (section)

== Early life ==
John Holmes was born John Curtis Estes on August 8, 1944, in the small rural town of [[Ashville, Ohio]], about {{convert|11|mi}} south of [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]]. He was the youngest of four children born to 26-year-old Mary June ({{née}} Barton) Holmes, but the name of his father, railroad worker Carl Estes, was left blank on his birth certificate. Mary had married Edgar Harvey Holmes, who was the father of her three older children {{ndash}} Dale, Edward and Anne. She and Edgar were married and divorced three times, as is documented by wedding certificates dated April 13, 1936; August 13, 1945; and September 12, 1947.<ref>Marriage records for Mary Barton Holmes and Edgar Holmes as researched at Familysearch.org  [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-FHK9-R Ohio County Marriages, 1789-2016, Franklin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202015317/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-FHK9-R |date=February 2, 2016 }}, [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-F8D8-K Ohio County Marriages, 1789-2016, Franklin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202005751/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-F8D8-K |date=February 2, 2016 }} [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B19G-F7 Ohio County Marriages, 1789-2016, Packaway]{{registration required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202013124/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B19G-F7 |date=February 2, 2016 }}</ref> At the time of their first marriage in 1936, Edgar was 35 years old and divorced, while Mary was aged 17.<ref name="Ohio marriage records">{{cite web|title=Ohio marriage records|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B19G-F7|website=FamilySearch.org|access-date=August 9, 2015|archive-date=February 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202013124/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-B19G-F7|url-status=live}}{{registration required}}</ref> After divorcing for the third and final time, Edgar and Mary each got married one more time.<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-FH4R-X Ohio County Marriages, 1789-2016, Franklin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202011611/https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939L-FH4R-X |date=February 2, 2016 }}  [https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDMM-Y4X Mary J. Holmes]{{registration required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218220805/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDMM-Y4X |date=February 18, 2022 }}</ref>

Mary changed John's surname from Estes to Holmes when he was a child. In 1986, when Holmes applied for a [[passport]] for the first time prior to a trip to Italy, his mother reportedly provided him with the handwritten copy of his original birth certificate, which led Holmes to learn that his biological father was Carl Estes.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Holmes' mother was said to be a devout [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] and with her children regularly attended church in [[Millport, Pickaway County, Ohio|Millport, Ohio]]. By contrast, his stepfather Edgar was an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] who would come home inebriated, stumble about the house and even vomit on the children. As a child, Holmes enjoyed a reprieve from his turbulent home life when he visited his maternal grandparents, John W. and Bessie (née Gillenwater) Barton.<ref name="Ohio marriage records"/> Mary divorced Edgar when Holmes was a toddler and moved with her children to Columbus, where they lived in a low-income [[housing project]] with a friend of Mary's and her own two children. The two women worked as clerks and waitresses in order to support their children.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

On December 31, 1951, when Holmes was aged 7, his mother married Harold Bowman. Shortly afterward, Holmes and his family moved to the small town of [[Pataskala, Ohio]], about seventeen miles east of Columbus. Holmes recalled that Bowman was a good father until his younger half-brother David was born, at which point Bowman reportedly lost interest in his stepchildren and began [[child neglect|neglecting]] them.<ref name=amerson>{{cite news|title=Bill Amerson interview |work=Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes|date=1998}}</ref><ref name=wadd/>

In 1960, Holmes left home at age 15 and enlisted in the [[United States Army]], with his mother's written permission. He spent most of the three years of his military service in [[West Germany]] in the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Signal Corps]].<ref name=wadd/> Upon his [[Military discharge|honorable discharge]] in 1963, Holmes moved to [[Los Angeles]], California, where he worked in a variety of jobs, including selling goods [[door-to-door]] and tending the vats at a [[Pearson Candy Company, Inc.#Signature product: Pearson Coffee Nip|Coffee Nips]] factory. During his stint as an ambulance driver, Holmes met a nurse named Sharon Gebenini in December 1964. They married on August 21, 1965, in [[Fort Ord, California]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=+givenname:John~++surname:holmes~++spouse_givenname:Sharon~++spouse_surname:Gebenini~|title=FamilySearch|website=www.familysearch.org|access-date=October 3, 2018|archive-date=February 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218222618/https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=+givenname:John~++surname:holmes~++spouse_givenname:Sharon~++spouse_surname:Gebenini~|url-status=live}}{{registration required}}</ref> after Holmes turned 21.<ref name="scary">{{cite book|last=Sager|first=Mike|title=Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Stories of Sex, Drugs, Rock 'N' Roll and Murder|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/scarymonsterssup00sage/page/10 10]|isbn=978-1-56025-563-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/scarymonsterssup00sage/page/10}}</ref>

In April 1965, Holmes found work as a [[forklift]] driver at a [[meat packing industry|meatpacking]] warehouse in [[Cudahy, California|Cudahy]]. However, repeated exposure to the freezing air in the large walk-in freezer after being outside inhaling the desert-hot air caused him severe health problems, leading to a [[pneumothorax|collapsed lung]] on three separate occasions during the two years he worked there.<ref name=scary/> Sharon also had health problems, as during the first seventeen months of her marriage to Holmes, she [[Miscarriage|miscarried]] three times.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|title=John Holmes, a Life Measured in Inches|last1=Sugar |first1=Jennifer |last2=Nelson |first2=Jill C. |date= 2008}}</ref>