Family and friends remember Minden businessman, J.C. Johnson – best known for his ownership of J.C. Johnson Ford – as a caring man.
Johnson passed away over the weekend.
Mike Olson, Johnson’s nephew, says he cared about his family and his community.
“He was very caring and he would do anything for you,” he said.
Olson says his uncle hired him at the current Hebert’s Town and Country Ford more than 20 years ago, because he was between jobs.
“He took me in and gave me a second chance to do whatever I needed to do, and I think the world of him,” he said. “He’s a family man; he always cares about his family and others.”
Johnson was born in Athens in 1933 and later moved to Haynesville, where he grew up and graduated from Haynesville High School in 1951.
Charles Garrett, classmate, remembers Johnson as a good man.
“He was four days older than I am,” the 82-year-old Garrett said. “When he was a young boy, his mother and father worked on my daddy’s farm. They had a house up on the hill out east of Haynesville. They lived there for a long time.”
Johnson’s parents, Chester and Annie Maude Johnson, were from Haynesville.
Garrett says the two were good friends, and Johnson had a lot of friends.
“He was a big talker and had lots of energy,” Garrett said. “He married a girl that was a year younger, the class behind us – Annie Laura.”
His classmate says Johnson did well in high school and was a team member of the Haynesville Golden Tornado.
Johnson owned and operated Ford dealerships in Haynesville, Arcadia and Minden, spending nearly 50 years in the automobile dealership business.
Olson says he was a car dealer “to the core.”
During his career, Johnson served as a board member and later president of the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association and Self Insurers Fund. He was also a board member and president of the Ford Dealers Advertising Fund.
Johnson was not a graduate of Louisiana State University, but he was instrumental in starting the Webster Parish alumni chapter and scholarship fund for the university. He eventually went on to serve as a member of the LSU Alumni board.
He was a faithful member of First United Methodist Church in Minden.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Annie Laura Johnson, one son, one brother, one sister and a host of other relatives and friends.