By Nancy Marlowe
In the Johnson family, the names of John and Robert are interchanged with the generations. “I guess we aren’t very inventive,” said John Robert Johnson, All Souls’ junior warden, head teller, member of the executive and finance committees and sometimes grass cutter.
John’s profile is an all-American story. His grandmother was an Iowa farm woman and his father, Robert Johnson, was a sales representative for Shell Oil Co.
John was born in Omaha, Neb. His father “scraped together” the money to buy an oil jobbing business in Morristown, Tenn., and the family moved there when John was four years old.
John’s father became an oil distributor just as World War II began. “There was no gas and no tires to sell,” John said, “but my father was an optimist. ‘When this war is over,’ he said, ‘things will be better in east Tennessee.’ And they were.”
Life was very good in Morristown. The Johnsons were Presbyterians and active in the church. John loved hiking in the mountains. Both he and his son, Robert, are Eagle Scouts. “It was good training and education and helped me appreciate nature.”
John and his wife of 51 years, Margie, were teen-age sweethearts, attending the same schools, but not at the same time. John went off to McCallie, a military prep school in Chattanooga, and Margie to Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia to study organ. John was graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with a major in mathematics. Margie earned a degree in music.
John did his stint in the army. “It was a peacetime army,” he said, “a phenomenon between the Korean and Vietnam wars.” He served at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., where the German rocket scientist Werner Von Braun and his team were developing guided missiles. John often saw the scientist driving his Rocket 88 Oldsmobile.
John and Margie were married and moved to boomtown Huntsville. “A junkyard had been cleared and apartments built,” John said. “This is where I brought my bride.”
After serving out his enlistment in New York City, the Johnsons came back to Morristown and John joined the family business. “When my father died in 1963, I took over Johnson Oil Co. Again, we had little imagination. Perhaps it should have been Modern Energy or something.”
Margie was initially employed as organist for the First Presbyterian Church which John had attended since his boyhood. She then became organist and choirmaster for All Saints’ Episcopal Church. The churches were across the street from one another. When the Presbyterian church lost Margie as organist, some members suggested they just open the windows and listen to her music coming from the Episcopal church.
After 10 years of attending separate churches, John said, “I crossed the street and never looked back. Both denominations have an inquiring concept of belief, but I grew to love the beauty of the Episcopal liturgy.” All Saints’ Episcopal Church called its first female priest when John served as chairman of the search committee.
John and Margie have a son, Robert, and daughter, Martha. Rob is public information officer for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and his wife Michelle has the same role with the Department of Human Services. Martha, a writer, is wife of Mark Bourlakas, dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Louisville, Ky.
John was mayor of Morristown for 18 years, president of Rotary Club, president of the Chamber of Commerce, a leader in industrial recruitment for the area and helped in developing the town’s Youth Emergency Shelter for children in crisis. He served as chairman of the Great Smoky Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Margie cared for her aging father and his two sisters. Her father lived to be 100, his sisters to 102 and 106. When caregiver responsibilities ended, the Johnsons retired to Montreat, where they had maintained a vacation home for years. They were drawn to All Souls by the music program. Margie often serves as organist for Sunday services.
John observes of the cathedral, “The spirit within the congregation is admirable. Many skills and abilities are represented. We don’t want to change a thing; we just want to be part of it.”