Bio: Leon Johnson, Caddo Parish La
Source: From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry,
1928, 
Submitted by: Kay Thompson Brown

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                            LEON JOHNSON.

LEON JOHNSON was born in Longstreet, Louisiana, March 22, 1894, the son of
Ernest and Cammie Wells Johnson. His mother is one of tile most splendid types
of a Christian mother. Her daily life toward her neighbors and in her family
exudes love and kindness at all times. She was heard to say once that she
always made an excuse to return to her room after all her family started to
Sunday school and church, so that she might kneel, all alone, and get close to
God and invoke his guidance in every act and word that she might he a living
example and blessing to her family, friends and community. Having such a
mother, it is no wonder that Leon Johnson  would he purposeful, steady, and
honest and would put his best into any undertaking.

Mr. Johnson received a high school education, graduating with high honors. His
father had  planned to make a school teacher of him, but that profession
was the one most of all distasteful to Leon. So, his father told him he would
have to go to work.  Consequently, the young boy went to work at $30 per
month.  He remained here until he went back to Longstreet to work for L. T,
Holmes. Here he worked for the same salary he received in Logansport but at
the end of one year be set his own price. At the end of the second year with
Mr. Holmes, Leon was found in full charge of the store, buying, bookkeeping,
handling cotton, managing the gin and, in fact, doing all kinds of things,
working early and late.

Upon the opening of the World War, he felt it his duty to volunteer, which he
proceeded to do.

He was sent to Tulane and given three months training there and sent across as
a private.  The armistice was signed just after he landed "Over There," so
he was sent up into the Army of Occupation at Coblentz where he remained in
full charge of a  Government Post  Exchange, after which he returned to the
United States and resumed his old job with Mr. Holmes. Remaining with this one
year, he decided that it was time to get out for himself. 

At the time he left Mr. Holmes he had saved about $1,500, and came to
Shreveport. He went to the Hicks Company and asked for credit to go into a
little grocery business. Mr. Hicks authorized his branch in Homer (the place
Mr. Leon decided was the best oil boom point in which to locate a grocery) to
extend Mr. Johnson credit.  So his first little Cash-and-Carry Store opened
for business. This was operated for seven months, Mr. Leon doing practically
all the work himself, averaging 17 hours work per day, living on leftovers
mostly. When the oil boom broke out in Haynesville he opened a large grocery
there which was the best the town had ever had.  Business began to grow and
the store in Homer was sold at a nice profit and efforts were concentrated in
Haynesville.  A very large business was done with the oil field people, often
delivering tons of groceries to the oil fields when the roads were so bad and
muddy that it took as high as ten pairs of mules to draw one load of
groceries.  Several times when the weather was so very bad, Leon was afraid to
send his men to the fields with these loads, so he took a negro and went
himself. It took as long as 15 hours to make a trip four miles with a load of
groceries to the oil field and come back, on several occasions, with icicles
hanging all over his clothes. He endured all this because he saw he was
getting nearer and  nearer the goal he had set for himself, but he did not, of
course, move his family out there. After about two years the oil business
began to get dry, he sold out and went to El Dorado, Arkansas, during that
boom, and also to Smackover, Arkansas, about the same time.

To get his bearing, he purchased the meat and poultry market and coffee
department of the Big Chain; ran this two years then opened a delicatessen on
Line avenue. Succeeding with this he built a two-story brick store on
Gladstone Boulevard and opened the finest and most complete grocery in
Shreveport. Last year did a business near $400,000 cash groceries; while this
year the business is going at the rate of half a million per year. The store
has cold storage and operates its own bakery. The drawing card to his store is
the parking space of two large lots.  Mr. Johnson's success is due to hard
work and perseverance. He owns an attractive brick home at 539 Forest Avenue 
"Cash for everything" is one of Mr. Johnson's mottoes.

There are four children in the home--Leon, Jr., Alma, Jerelyn and Catherine.