Drew Johnson Jr.

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Drew T. Johnson Jr., age 86, of Demopolis died on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at his home.
He was born on April 20, 1923, in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Hot Springs, Ark. He served as an infantry officer in Japan and the Philippines during World War II. He and his wife, Genida, married in 1944, and after the war, they moved to Fayetteville, Ark. He graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1950 with a degree in chemical engineering. They moved to Demopolis in 1957, where he was a member of the Gulf States Paper start-up team. He remained with Gulf States until his retirement in 1985.
He served as a Sunday school teacher for 51 years at First Baptist Church, where he also served as a deacon, Training Union director and Sunday school superintendent.
He served on the board of Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital, the Alabama State Credit Union, the Demopolis City Schools Foundation and the Department of Pensions and Security. He was also actively involved in the political and civic life of Demopolis and the state of Alabama.
Johnson was named Citizen of the Year in 2004 and earned the Demopolis Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Fellowship that same year. In 2006, he was honored by the state of Alabama for his community service.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Drew Tea Johnson and Lila Elizabeth Hall, and three brothers, Lewis, Charles and Daniel Johnson.
He is survived by his wife, Lillie Genida Herndon Johnson; three children, Drew Michael (Lynn Spight) Johnson of Nashville, Tenn., Nancy Ellen (Neil) Tucker of Yuma, Ariz., and Sandra Johnson (Randal) Walton of Lynchburg, Va.; four grandchildren, Drew M. Johnson (Erin) Johnson II of Atlanta, Ga., John Walker Johnson of Helena, Jonathan Douglas Walton of Huntsville and David Benjamin Walton of Lynchburg, Va.; two great-grandsons, Drew Michael Johnson III and Jacob Forrest Johnson; and a sister, Bette Merritt of Hot Springs, Ark.
Visitation will be on Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Kidd-Robbins Funeral Home of Demopolis. A worship service will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 11 a.m. at the First Baptist Church. The Rev. A.L. Courtney will officiate. Burial will follow in Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Demopolis. Kidd-Robbins Funeral Directors of Demopolis is directing the services.
Pallbearers will be Drew Johnson III, Walker Johnson, Jonathan Walton, David Walton, Mint Shows and Henry Baxley. Honorary pallbearers will be Johnson’s Sunday school class and the deacons of First Baptist Church.

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