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Tireless, generous woman lived a rich life
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Bessie Annie Butler Johnson
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Published: January 1, 2009
Updated: 01/01/2009 03:30 am
When Bessie Annie Butler Johnson began volunteering for Meals on Wheels at age 86, she often served people far younger than she.
Even though she stayed close to home most of her life and never had much money, Johnson lived a rich life. She died April 7 at the age of 104.
"My mother was one of the most resourceful people I have ever known," said daughter Ann Willson. "She would have been wasted on a rich man."
Johnson was curious about life, kept a positive attitude and liked to be engaged.
She cultivated a wildflower garden. She wrote. She painted and drew. While her husband made furniture, she took care of the customers and books. She grew most of the vegetables the family ate. She read about history and anything else that caught her attention, which was a lot. She had people over to the house for her prayer group, book club and garden club. She made clothes for her three daughters and for herself. She watched birds. She collected rocks and stamps and coins. She gave tea parties.
"She loved people," said daughter Elizabeth Reid. "She never drove, so she would love having people into the home, and she would serve tea."
(With Meals on Wheels, someone else drove, and she carried the meals in.)
Her wildflower garden came to be known throughout Rockingham County and was featured in area newspapers.
"She was extraordinary," Reid said. "Everything was interesting to her…. She loved to write, too. She presented many papers at her garden club."
"She almost never sat down," said Reid's husband, David.
He was also impressed by Johnson's devotion to her family. Johnson's husband died in 1990, and, in 1996, she moved to Forsyth County and lived in retirement communities here for the rest of her life.
One of 12 children, Johnson grew up in Liberty and went to Guilford College.
She became a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse that had children in grades one through eight.
"It didn't take her long to decide that was not her life's work," Reid said.
She didn't marry until she was in her mid-20s, which was considered old in those days.
"She was teased a lot about being an old maid," Reid said.
She met James Pope Johnson of Madison when she went in to apply for a job at Sears, Roebuck & Co. He offered the job to the woman who came in just before her. But, when the woman found out that he expected her to work that coming Saturday, which would have meant missing a game she wanted to attend, she turned down the job. So, he went ahead and interviewed Bessie Annie Butler.
"Mother got the job and got the man," Reid said.
After the Johnsons married, they went into business together, with James Johnson hand-making Windsor chairs and other furniture in classic styles. Bessie Johnson finished the furniture, dealt with customers and kept the books for their business, the Chelsea Workshop. They ran the business out of their home, and she also sold knickknacks.
Because he was such a talented furniture-maker, some people failed to notice just how talented his wife was, Willson said. The Johnsons ran the business together for 60 years.
"He was very gifted, but they did not make a lot of money doing it," Reid said.
For many years, the Johnsons rented their home. When she was 59 and he husband was 65, they built -- with their own hands -- a house for themselves.
"I figure out what she did and get exhausted," Willson said. "It's inspirational to me."
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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