Kerry Ryan and John Juback Love Story

Love story

By KIRK SEMPLE AUG. 7, 2015

Kerry Ryan needed a new place to live; her crazy Yugoslavian roommate had become unbearable. So, as people did in 1991 in New York City, she turned to the classified ads in The Village Voice.

Ms. Ryan was 21 at the time and had immigrated from her native Ireland only a month and a half earlier for an internship in the fashion industry. She was naïve, by her own description, but apparently not lacking in gumption.

The ad said: “29th & 3rd Ave-3 mos. poss longer. M seeks non-smoking F, strictly Platonic. Own room in 2BR apt. elev bldg A/C.”

She called the listed number, and the man who answered the phone invited her to come check out the place.

That man, John Juback, then 43, was a stage actor, born in the Bronx and raised in New Jersey. He had been living alone in a small, two-bedroom apartment in Kips Bay...