Author John T. Wayne discusses connection to movie legend

Mountain Grove’s Heritage Festival featured around 200 vendors selling anything from crafts and novelties to food and beverages.
One of those vendors provided area residents an opportunity to get up close and personal with someone connected to Hollywood and western royalty.
Author John T. Wayne was on the Mountain Grove square Aug. 9-10 selling a selection of the nine books, which includes his Gaslight Boys Stories collection, he’s written since the 1980s.
Though his name suggests he could be related to the legend of the big screen, John Wayne, it is only a part of his recent 10-year journey that culminated into his recent book, “An American Heritage.”
John T. Wayne, whose given name was Terry Wayne Hammock, attended his father, Billy Gene Hammock’s funeral, back in 2009. It was then that he learned six out of his father’s siblings all had names associated with the late actor. They included Uncle Bobby, Uncle John, etc.
He went on to say his father never knew who his dad was. At the funeral, he also learned that his aunt’s name was Mary Ann and not just Ann.
Strangely, only his father Billy Gene Hammock did not have a name linked to the Hollywood actor.
His recently released book, “An American Heritage,” details research that shows his father being born in 1935 to a Lela Pearl Clements out of wedlock. The doctor who delivered him was John C. Morrison, which was John Wayne’s real family name.
It is understood that Morrison had a party to celebrate his daughter’s graduation from Duke University in the spring of 1934, a party in which the legendary actor attended on his own 26th birthday.
When his father was born, the doctor listed Victor Hammock as the father. Problem is that years later, when Victor died, his obituary only mentioned him having two other sons, a Larry and a Bill.
As some things began to come to light after his own father’s funeral, he made plans to begin writing western fiction with an attempt to make an impact in the Louis L’Amour market. So dressing like a cowboy was one way to promote this efforts.
With this look, now many people would greet him telling him that he looks like the legendary actor, John Wayne. This same look was also shared by his brother and previously by his late farther, Billy.
With so many details coming together in the three years following his father’s death, Terry Hammock legally changed his name to John T. Wayne in 2012.
“If the good Lord didn’t want this happening to me, I would have never learned that stuff,” he said. “…I like to say that I found the John Wayne tree was broke off and I am trying to put it back.”
In his book, he said, “once the men of that time covered up (his dad’s) birth, I think God looked down from the heavens and said ‘Oh yeah? Watch this!’
There is no other way to explain the DNA shared by my father, myself and my son,”he noted.
“My son, Ryan, from my first marriage, looks like the spitting image of the Duke right now.”
John T. Wayne said a DNA test through ancestry.com links him to the Morrisons, but that information was blocked on their end  and marked private.
He is hoping for the names to be unlocked some day or that a DNA sample could be provided by the Wayne family to further clear up the matter.
John T. Wayne said he is not doing the research with the hopes of receiving any money from the Hollywood actor’s family, his focus is on his family’s legacy and to connect all of the dots that his late father was never able to see come to fruition.
“So now you know what I know,” John T. Wayne said in his book.
“The evidence, in pieces may be circumstantial. But taken as a whole and coupled with God’s confirmation, there isn’t much room for doubt.”
John T. Wayne’s book, “An American Heritage,” along with his entire Gaslight Series of books, are available for purchase at amazon.com and BarnesandNobles.com along with Walmart.com.