Byron Lee Johnson
Not long after our youngsters and the children from the neighboring farm went off to the woods to pick huckleberries, a sudden summer shower came up. It really poured, and soon all the children came back - with dripping wet clothes and very few berries. All except my son, Byron Lee. It wasn’t until much later, after the shower was over, that he came around the corner of the barn. His face was beaming as he proudly held up his bucket full of berries, and to our amazement his clothes were as dry as a powder horn. Asked how he’d kept dry, Byron Lee said, ‘Oh, I heard that rain coming so I pulled my clothes off and stuffed them in a hollow log and kept on picking berries. By the time the sun came out I had my bucket full, so I put my clothes on and came home.’ With Byron Lee’s Yankee ingenuity and habitual good luck, we were confident he would return safely from World War II. Our son didn’t come back - but we are certain that these rare qualities made him a good soldier as long as he survived.
by Mrs. R. B. Johnson
Byron Lee Johnson was born on 18 August 1919. He served as a First Lieutenant in the American military. Byron Lee Johnson passed on at 25 years of age on 9 January 1945 aboard a Japanese prisoner of war ship near Formosa.
Mrs. R. B. Johnson was Mrs. Ranthus Byron Johnson (her husband’s name preceded by her title ‘Mrs.’ as was common practice at the time); she was also known as Thelma Johnson (maiden name White).
Not long after our youngsters and the children from the neighboring farm went off to the woods to pick huckleberries, a sudden summer shower came up. It really poured, and soon all the children came back - with dripping wet clothes and very few berries. All except my son, Byron Lee. It wasn’t until much later, after the shower was over, that he came around the corner of the barn. His face was beaming as he proudly held up his bucket full of berries, and to our amazement his clothes were as dry as a powder horn. Asked how he’d kept dry, Byron Lee said, ‘Oh, I heard that rain coming so I pulled my clothes off and stuffed them in a hollow log and kept on picking berries. By the time the sun came out I had my bucket full, so I put my clothes on and came home.’ With Byron Lee’s Yankee ingenuity and habitual good luck, we were confident he would return safely from World War II. Our son didn’t come back - but we are certain that these rare qualities made him a good soldier as long as he survived.
by Mrs. R. B. Johnson
Byron Lee Johnson was born on 18 August 1919. He served as a First Lieutenant in the American military. Byron Lee Johnson passed on at 25 years of age on 9 January 1945 aboard a Japanese prisoner of war ship near Formosa.
Mrs. R. B. Johnson was Mrs. Ranthus Byron Johnson (her husband’s name preceded by her title ‘Mrs.’ as was common practice at the time); she was also known as Thelma Johnson (maiden name White).
