Beckham County, OK - Obits: Leroy Johnson, 1924 05 August 2008 Submitted by: delma25@pldi.net (Delma Tindell) ********************************************************************* USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ********************************************************************* JOHNSON, LEROY (23 Oct 1924, Elk City Newspaper, Elk City, Beckham Co, OK): DEATH OF LEROY JOHNSON. Elsewhere will be found the particulars of the sudden death of Leroy Johnson who used to work in the office of the Blair-Hughes Wholesale Grocery at Elk City and who married Miss Mavis Coleman, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Coleman who formerly lived just east of Fair ground. His father at one time was district superintendent of the M. E. Church South of Clinton district, and has preached in Elk City several times. Mrs. W. T. Coleman and Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Chambers were at Duncan attending the funeral, so said J. B. Winn, who sent us the notice. Mr. Winn is working in the Wilson-Johnson store at Duncan. (Reprinted from the Duncan Banner): Le Roy Johnson, of the firm of Wilson-Johnson, and manager of the company's store here, died at his home, 712 Chestnut avenue, after a very brief illness, Saturday shortly before noon. Heart failure, the culmination of a stomach trouble, was the cause of death. Mr. Johnson had enjoyed good health with the exception of occasional mild attacks of stomach trouble, and the announcement of his death was received by friends and business associates as a great shock. Friday evening Mr. Johnson complained to some of the employees in the store that he was not feeling well and expressed a desire for a glass of buttermilk, stating that he would not drink it until after consulting his physician. Saturday morning he was at the store as usual until about 10 o'clock when he complained of feeling so badly that he was forced to go home where he lay down on a bed on the sleeping porch. Even after reaching home neither the stricken man or Mrs. Johnson considered the possibility of the outward flow of life's current. Mrs. Johnson, busy with the housework, answered the phone several times when those at the store would call for instructions concerning the work which their employer had been forced to abandon when he left the store. Mr. Johnson gave the information called for without a trace of suspicion that those instructions were to be his final words to employees who faithfully "carried on" during his absence, just as they had in the past when he would leave the business in their hands. A few minutes before 12 o'clock stepping into the room to wait on her husband, Mrs. Johnson found him gasping for breath and sensing the nearness of the grim reaper, frantic in her realization of the truth, she hastened from the house across the street for assistance. Physicians were quickly at the death bed but their skill could not revive the fast, fading spark of life, and after but a few moments suffering the mortal remains were wrapped in death's embrace as the soul winged its way into that far country from which no soul save one has ever returned. LeRoy Johnson came to Duncan about six years ago when his firm opened the store here and has managed the business ever since. He has seen the business grow from an ordinary small town store into a department store that would be a credit to a city twice as large as Duncan, and occupying approximately three times the floor space as occupied when the doors first swung open. The business has grown to an almost miraculous extent, and the personality, square-dealing and business judgement of the manager has been the guiding hand. An earnest, conscientious worker in the Methodist church, the church of his parents, Mr. Johnson was always a factor that swung to the side of better things, and he was an untiring worker in the activities, not only of his own church, but every other church of the city, and every civic activity of Duncan prospered and succeeded better because of the efforts of Mr. Johnson. Believing that one of his missions in life was to spread sunshine, LeRoy Johnson was always cheerful. There was always a hearty greeting and a pleasant smile for everyone whom he met, whether it be in the store, on the street or at any one of the thousand gatherings which he attended. Conservative in all things, expressing his opinions only in such terms as could never wound the feelings of another, he was liked and respected by business contemporaries and by everyone with whom he came in contact. In his death Duncan has lost a faithful citizen. The children of the city have lost a true-blue friend who was more than a friend, he was a companion to them, and gave much of his time to their activities. Standing four-square in his dealings with the other business men of the city, his death brought forth scores of expressions of sorrow and regret. LeRoy Johnson is a son of Rev. L. L. Johnson, pastor of the Duncan Methodist church in 1906 and later presiding elder of this district. The elder Johnson preceded the son about seven years in passing from this life. The mother lives in Wynnewood. Deceased is survived by the widow and two children; by two sisters, one living at Sulphur and one at Mangum; a brother in Oklahoma City and another in Quantico, W. Va. Funeral arrangements had not been made up to late Saturday night and the remains were being held at the residence until relatives had arrived in response to telegrams sent as soon as their addresses could be ascertained. And Saturday, as the busy throngs surged through the street, past the Wilson-Johnson store, sombre gray streamers of crepe hanging to the door handles told the grim story clearer, briefer and with more sorrow than human lips could ever utter. Inside the store all was silent. Aisles that had but a few short hours before echoed with the scuffle of hundreds of feet as customers competed for attention from the clerks, were hushed and the gloom which follows death enshrouded the desk before which stood the vacant chair of the guiding hand of the business, and silence, sorrowful and pathetic, reigned supreme. --------------------------------------------------- Return to Beckham County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/beckham/beckham.html