The Life Lessons of Marion Truman Johnson
Look Out For Your Family, Learn to Laugh, Work Hard, and Love With All Your Heart
Marion Johnson was born on August 30, 1945 in Greenville and spent his entire life here in the Upstate of South Carolina with his family. He was the fifth child, the second son of Little Berry and Fannie Mae Johnson. He grew up in the middle of a large family of textile mill workers who worked hard and loved even harder, and who lived out their faith in the way they treated others. Family was valued above all and Marion’s spot in the middle was one that was essential.
Marion grew up surrounded by his family, and he learned from his older brother and sisters while he looked out for his younger ones. All of us grew up hearing the stories of how hungry the kids stayed. Little Berry and Granny Fannie did their best by their children, but it was a long time between breakfast before the school bus came and supper before third shift at Poe Mill. Marion figured out a way to help provide a little lunch for his brothers and sisters by sneaking a frying pan out of the kitchen and hiding it under the house. He would squirrel away some eggs from the chicken coop and take off into the woods to fry some up for Vernon, Martha, Eddie, and Randy to eat. Martha told me that Marion was the one who could sneak in the kitchen in between breakfast and supper and slowly ease the oven door down so the hinges wouldn’t squeak and sneak a biscuit. If he made it out alive, he would share. Marion could have just looked out for himself, but he didn’t. He took care of his family and took the whippings for it when he was caught.
Lesson 1.)We’ve learned from Marion that family always looks out for each other.
Rita shared with me how very much she loved her daddy. Like so many of us Johnsons, she grew up a daddy’s girl. She said she would lay awake in her bed in the evenings waiting on him to get home from work. She memorized the sound of his truck downshifting at the four way stop, the tires and axles as they slowed down over the driveway, and his gears putting the truck into park. Rita said her heart would leap in her throat hearing the familiar shuffle of her daddy’s tired feet as he crossed over the threshold of the backdoor. Her mama would have his supper waiting for him ready to heat up, usually served with the beans and greens he loved. Rita said she loved to climb up in his lap and feel his arms wrap around her safe and warm, knowing that all was right in the world because he was home with her.
She said through the years he was always there when she needed an encouraging word and she remembers riding in his green truck with him. He would always have kind words to say to her and her brother. She said sometimes he would pat her on the knee telling her to get a good education so she wouldn’t have to work as hard as he did. She said there aren’t really words to say how it felt just to be around her daddy because of how he made her feel with a kind word, one of his hugs, or a laugh. She said simply being in his presence was to feel loved.
Marion took family seriously. Marion took care of his former sister in law, Maxine not because he had to but because he knew she needed him, and it was the right thing to do. People knew they could count on Marion to be there when they needed him.
Lesson 2.)We’ve learned from Marion that when you can help someone or give a kind word, be sure to do it.
Marion also loved to laugh and enjoyed making others laugh as well. Eddie told us when they were little and were outside playing, Marion would come tearing across the yard and catch them and hold them down and give them a big cow lick right across their face. Randy said their faces would be nasty from playing and fighting all afternoon and in between the dirt and sweat there would be a long clean stripe from his cow lick! Even though they acted like they hated it, their big brother always knew how to make them laugh.
When they were growing up they would go to town all crammed together in a fifties model Chevrolet. Little Berry would drive and Granny Fannie would be in the front and the bigger kids would sit in the back seat. Younger brothers and sisters would have to stand up and ride on the hump in the middle that covered the drive shaft. Many times when there was fussing or fighting going on, Marion would lean up and jerk the younger sibling’s pants down and holler out, “Picture Show!” “Picture Show!” The back seat would erupt in laughter as Eddie or Randy or Mott held on for dear life with one hand and tried to pull up their drawers with the other. Many times around a campfire at a deer hunt or a picnic table at family reunion Marion would have a funny story or a joke to tell.
Greg said one of the funny things he remembers growing up is when the movie Superman first came out, Marion would sneak in the closet and at just right the time when a commercial would come on he would jump out and pull open his shirt and yell, “I’m Superman!” Greg says he remembers fondly watching his daddy surprise him and run down the hall saying, “You didn’t know your daddy was Superman did you?” Back then Greg said he knew his daddy wasn’t the real Superman but over the years he has seen how big of a heart his daddy truly had for him and for others. So, yes Marion was a Superman to his children.
Lesson 3.) We’ve learned from Marion that when life is hard, a little bit of laughter always helps.
Marion grew up and went to work like his daddy and mama and his older brother, Pete in the cotton mill. He was taught to work hard and to give it his best, and he did. When he clocked in, he gave it his best each hour he was there. When Grannie Fannie passed away, we found a box of pictures and newspapers she kept throughout her life. Inside was a clipping of Marion who made the local news for winning the fastest doffer award at Poe Mill. When I asked him about it, he just laughed and said he was just doing his job. Throughout his life he worked hard and did it humbly without boasting and without complaints. Many times he worked two jobs to provide for his family. He would work swing shifts at Mitsubishi Polyester Films in Greer – four days of twelve hour shifts- and then on his off days, he would work at local golf courses fixing their golf carts and doing oil changes and brake repairs in his garage. He rode to and from work many days with his brother, Randy. Some of my best childhood memories in Simpsonville were spent playing in the yard with my dad waiting on Uncle Marion to come by and pick him up for third shift. Uncle Marion always had a smile on his face and a little pack of M and Ms candy for me and for my brother. He would pick me up and hug me and say, “Hey Lil’ Sis how you doing?” I would hug the smooth shave of his neck and breathe in his cologne. I thought he and my Daddy were the best looking men there were.
I remember riding in the back of the truck with my brother because we wanted to go with them on the weekends to work at the golf course. We would hunt old golf balls or swim in the pool there while they worked. Marion never minded work and made the best of it when he was there. He would have the radio on listening or whistling to an old country song. He taught us to put peanuts in our Pepsis and hot sauce on our hot dogs. Later when he retired, he was still helping all of us do side jobs like painting, landscaping, or home repair. He was careful and patient and always left things better than when he started. Greg shared that at least once every year he would pull the engine out of his green truck, and would paint the engine, and even pack all the u joints and wheel bearings with grease so it would look brand new.
Lesson 4.) Marion taught us that work was not something to dread or to avoid, but a part of life that helped you provide for your family. Work was something to take pride in and if you were lucky you could even work with your family.
Marion provided for Aunt Doris and Rita and Greg through the years always making sure they had a home to live in and food on the table. He was the first one in our family to build his own house, and one of our families’ prized possessions through the years was Marion’s garage. His children grew up and made a life there and we all did too because Marion shared what he had with all of us. Every weekend they weren’t at work, Marion and his brothers were in his garage working on their cars or the cars of friends who knew they could trust them to do a good job. Marion, Pete, Vernon, Eddie, and Randy and their brother in law, Tommy, learned their way around an engine fixing up what broke down in ways that didn’t break the bank while bonding them together. Greg said he knew when his daddy was working in the garage he had two choices. He knew he could be in his daddy’s way or he could stay there and be given a job to do. Greg said most of the time he would stay. He learned tools and techniques. He said when he was helping Marion would holler out, “Greg, give me a 9/16 wrench?” Greg said he would say, “Dad, what is that?” His dad would say, “Boy! It’s right there! Look it says 9/16 right there on it!”
Another job in the garage Greg had that his daddy gave him was cleaning car parts with a bucket of gas. He said one time it was cold outside and Marion had lit the kerosene heater to warm up the garage. Greg said he moved himself closer and closer to the kerosene heater to get warm while he was cleaning the garage. His daddy hollered, “Boy you are going to blow yourself up!” We all laugh that Marion saved their lives that day, but Greg shared with me that the many times he spent in the garage growing up with his dad helped him create a life for himself. While he was cleaning tools and trying not to be in the way, he was learning and that laid a foundation for his future career as a mechanic.
I remember many Saturday afternoons spent in Marion’s garage with my brother watching my dad and my uncles fix transmissions, change the oil, replace brakes and rotors, windshield wipers and spark plugs when they needed it. They were good mechanics, and we learned to love the smell of GoJo and WD-40 and the colors of motor oil – jewel toned rainbows swirling on the surface of a spill before Marion would pour on the Speedy Dry and we would sweep it up. Marion and his brothers were happiest when they were bent over the hood of a car trying to figure out what was wrong so they could get whoever was down and out, up and running again.
Greg shared one of his best memories growing up was when his daddy showed him how to spin a tire in his old green truck. He said he wanted to learn how to do it, and his daddy told him to “Dump the clutch boy! Dump the clutch!” He said it took them a while smoking them across Billy’s General Store there to learn how to burn rubber without burning up the clutch. He said they laughed when he remembered that it might have been the first time he learned how to burn rubber, but we all know, it wasn’t the last.
Every Christmas the garage was transformed from a mechanic’s shop to a place that held tables of food, a Christmas tree, and nine children, their children, and grandchildren. We didn’t need much but hot coffee, a few kerosene heaters, and each other to make the very best holiday. To drive by and look at it now you would shake your head in wonder at how we all fit in there at Christmas time, but we did. That garage- like the heart of our family- held us all together through the years. It took some work cleaning up that garage every Christmas and setting it up for all of us, but he never minded because we were his family.
While Marion loved spending time with all of his family he cherished his beautiful wife, Teresa above all else. He was so very proud of her, and whenever she was in his sight he had a smile on his face. In fact, rarely would you ever see them apart. Marion was blessed to live a long life but his years with sweet Teresa were some of his very best. There is no doubt the good Lord knew what he was doing when He brought her into his life, and ours. We are all so very thankful for how she loved him and cared for him. His time on this earth with her was a gift to him and to us all.
Lesson 5.) Marion taught us that it didn’t matter how much money you had, time with family is the best gift.
Through the years Marion lived a simple life. He worked hard for his family, he strived to keep peace, and did his best to help others when he could. In the same way he served his family and friends, quietly and humbly by doing what needed to be done and not expecting anything in return, he served his church family at Bethany Baptist Church. Through the years it was no surprise that Marion was the one who took care of the maintenance of the church bus and volunteered to drive the route to pick up children and adults who needed a ride to the services. It is no surprise that he was the one who changed the light bulbs when they needed it, painted trim, made repairs, and kept things running whenever he saw it needed to be done. While Rita and Greg, Aunt Teresa, and all of us knew his heart and the type of man he was, but it meant the world to Marion that he was elected to serve as a deacon his church family.
Lesson 6.) Marion taught us that faith was best lived out not in fancy suits or flowing words, but in the quiet service of your hands that show the overflow of your heart.
Marion lived out 1st Thessalonians 4:11-12: “…Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” While Marion’s seventy four years on this earth weren’t always easy and he had his share of troubles and heartache, he made the best of it and gave thanks to the good Lord for it all. He taught us while we are here to enjoy the simple things in life: a good hot dog with chili from Billy’s store, the loveliness of a beautiful wife, his children, Rita and Greg, their children, and great grandchildren, a good laugh, and time with family.
We are also so thankful to announce that Marion has his first namesake. His nephew, Justin and Justin’s beautiful wife, Jacqueline welcomed their baby boy to this world on Sunday, September 9th and have named him Everett Marion Johnson. Our family is a circle of strength and love, with every birth and every union the circle grows, and every trial faced makes the circle a bit stronger.”
Thank you, Marion, for making our family circle an even stronger one!
seekingasimplelifeblog 