Imagine Santa Claus as a white-collar businessman living in a small town, fat, jolly, loving children, producing a big rambunctious family of four much loved kids that he brags and laughs about, him serving as treasurer of the local Baptist Church for 50 years, and everyone liking to hang out with him --and the essence of my Uncle Jack is captured. He is my favorite uncle. Seeing his life makes me want to applaud human beings as a species, their potential for getting what it's all about so right. While Jack wasn't perfect, he achieved the spirit if not the letter. (Of course I'm viewing him through eyes of love, but isn't that how God views us?)
Jack was Cleve and Daisy Johnson's sixth child, an unexpected "bonus baby" who came in September 1927 when my grandmother was in her 40's, after she had sold the baby bed and given away the baby clothes. He was born at home, as were all of his siblings. When the public health nurse visited to get him registered for a birth certificate, my grandparents didn't have a clue what to name him. For months he was called "Baby." Finally the nurse returned and made grandmama commit to a name. Granddaddy, the final authority on all decisions, the one in charge, wasn't there. Grandmama deferred to him in all things. She did not even drive a car. Put on the spot by that nurse, Grandmama made one of few important decisions of her lifetime --she named the baby Jack, after her beloved father John (Jack) Burnette.
An interesting aside is that Granddaddy tried his absolute best to keep Grandmama away from her father whenever she was pregnant. Granddaddy believed in "prenatal impression" --that what the mother does can influence the fetus within. For example, if a pregnant woman eats strawberries, she is just asking for her poor baby to be blemished with a strawberry birthmark. Granddaddy blamed Daisy's visits with her nearly blind father for causing Cleve to have such horrible eyesight. He believed Daisy defied him when she was pregnant with Van, sneaking off to see about her father; so, presto, Van, too, was born legally blind. Granddaddy clearly had no knowledge of genetics (--but back then, who did?).
One more aside, too good not to record: despite being a "Mr. Magoo", my great-grandfather John Burnette by some miracle was awarded a Confederate sharpshooter medal for his performance in battle. He gave that medal to my father, so I have, with amusement, seen it many times.
Jack told me that he sure did wish Grandmama had given him a middle name --that not having one had been a thorn in his side every time he had to fill out forms and paperwork. Jack laughed about going through the Korean War as Jack N. Johnson because the U.S. Army would not allow him not to have a middle initial. Jack would write "none" in the required blank, hence the Jack N. Johnson.
Jack grew up in a houseful of loving family members who petted and enjoyed him in his role as baby boy. Unfortunately he was sickly as a child. One year Jack was so ill, missing so much school, that he had to repeat the grade. He had rheumatic fever that affected his heart.
Jack finished Fort Valley High School and, along with his best friend and side-kick Dicky Ray (who later became Senator Richard B. Ray of Georgia), went to Athens to the University of Georgia. Jack pledged Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, enjoyed its brotherhood and social life very much (gave the handshake the rest of his life) and earned his bachelor's degree in business administration. Jack loved UGA and Athens. When I was in graduate school and Jack was working as a traveling salesman, he made a point to overnight in Athens and visit me there a number of times.
When Jack completed school, he was drafted into the U.S. Army because of the Korean War. Because of his educational background, the Army sent him to New York and trained him in logistics. Then he protected life as we know it from behind a desk in New York for the duration of the war.
New York was an adjustment for Jack, who had never been far from home and certainly never been out of the South. He rented an apartment in Queens from a wealthy elderly lady named Mrs. Fonda, who owned the building plus a number of other apartments and houses. Mrs. Fonda lived downstairs and became fond of Jack, mothering him. She encouraged her 16-year-old granddaughter Yvonne to pay attention to Jack. My grandparents thought Mrs. Fonda engineered the whole courtship, but Jack was a willing victim. My grandmother raised her eyebrows but said nothing to find Yvonne's clothes in Jack's apartment when they went up there for the wedding. Once wed, Yvonne went on to be a student at New York University majoring in philosophy. When she moved back to Fort Valley with Jack after he left the Army, I absolutely hung on her every word. Yvonne was so smart, expressed herself so well, and talked about the most unique concepts (example: were my eyes seeing the same "green" that her eyes saw?). I followed Yvonne around like a puppy. I was her disciple. She and Jack seemed so much in love, and their marriage seemed wonderful to me.
Jack and Yvonne lived in the white wooden house on Forrest Drive next door to the mansion my grandfather had built. They had a black cocker spaniel named Tippy and a big black Ford with rounded fenders. Tippy kept having puppies, which I thought was terrific because I loved to go to Jack's and play with them. Pretty soon Yvonne gave birth to Dianne, named Yvonne Dianne Johnson after Aunt Yvonne. (Cousin Dianne used to list herself in the telephone directory as Y. D. Johnson, Jr.) I was totally in love with that baby and went to visit every chance I could finagle, which was several times each week.
It broke my heart and shook my world view when Aunt Yvonne left Jack to go back to her family in Queens when Dianne was three. After spending most of her life in exciting, stimulating, multi-optioned New York, Yvonne was very bored and very disappointed with life in Fort Valley. (And here I sit looking back at my aunt almost half a century later, wondering how did she miss the internal life, the life of the mind, that can be so rich in a small town?!) She took Dianne with her. Jack was left alone with just Tippy and the puppies.
For the next few years, that marriage twisted painfully in the wind. Jack would travel to New York hoping to be reconciled with his wife and to bring her and their child home. Which would last for a while. Then Dianne would confide to me that Yvonne was talking with her about leaving again. I would tell Jack, and Jack would look stressed and sad and say, "I can't stop her. She has a home here if she will accept it." After several such moves back and forth, the divorce papers were delivered to Jack like nailing a coffin. Dianne was six.
Jack is a family man, so he suffered this loss terribly. It cost him everything --he had tried starting his own clothing store in downtown Fort Valley, Jack's Department Store, but because of all the distraction and expenses from travel, lawyers, the divorce, the settlement, Jack ultimately lost his business. Then Yvonne had him jailed for nonpayment of child support.
Jack's life finally got back on track with Joyce. Joyce had been a clerk in his store. She had married her high school sweetheart, who took her, pregnant, home to live with his parents; then he went off to the University without her, too young, too immature for the responsibilities that come with marriage and fatherhood. Joyce divorced him and took the baby, a tiny blonde named Kim, back to her mother's. Jack and Joyce had a strong, good, satisfying marriage. Jack loved Kim, too, who from the age of three knew him as Daddy. Both Jack and Joyce knew how to be grateful for the other one. Joyce has my grandmother Daisy Burnette Johnson's personality --calm, quiet, unruffled, solid homebody, deferring to her husband, never raising her voice, and also cooking wonderful meals. The whole family looked forward to Joyce's homemade German Chocolate cake at every special event.
Yvonne's story ended in a plane crash several years later. Yvonne had a boyfriend who chartered a little plane to fly Yvonne, Dianne (age 12 then) and himself up to Montreal to go the World's Fair. There was a fuel leak causing the plane to crash, killing Yvonne and the boyfriend, almost killing Dianne. Jack flew up to be with his daughter in the hospital. She lost an eye and many teeth and had to have a number of operations.
After having plastic surgery, getting dentures, and getting a very realistic prosthetic eye, Dianne is an attractive, vital woman today. The insurance from the airplane crash set up a trust fund to cover the pain and losses she suffered, so she has an income such that she would never have to work for a living.
Dianne lived for a while with Jack and Joyce as a teenager, but she and Joyce did not get along whatsoever. Dianne returned to her Grandmother Fonda and finished high school in New York. She came to the University of Georgia for her undergraduate degree. Then she got not one but two doctorates, in Chemistry and in Biology. She seemed perfectly content to be a perpetual graduate student.
Toward the end of her second Ph.D., Dianne met a fellow graduate student, fell in love with him, and ended up living with him. They were writing dissertations at the same time. Dianne finished hers; he didn't. He hit some snags, got discouraged, felt like a failure, coped poorly and committed suicide. After his death Dianne grieved hard. She posthumously married him, taking his last name Godor. She also finished his dissertation and completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry.
Dianne took a research job with FDA in the Washington, DC area and bought herself a house in Maryland. She made a significant discovery that advanced the ability to effectively treat lupus. She learned, using x-rays, that the blood could be a delivery system for treatment --something like that. (Sorry I can't explain it better, but it is complex and not my area of specialty,)
Dianne finally healed enough emotionally to find another lover. She had a new roof put on her house, and has kept the roofer ever since, which has been years. No children, but she's a great aunt to her nieces and nephews.
To continue Jack's story, Jack and Joyce first had Jill, then the next year John (full name: John Burnette Johnson), and several years later, Ginger. As he had with me and every other niece and nephew in our childhoods, Jack enthusiastically played "Big Bad Wolf" with his own youngsters, chasing them to grab them and tickle them, and he also carried on the tradition of taking the kids for a "Mr. Maltie" or other treat at the Diary Queen.
His career was varied. Jack was good at sales and good at numbers. For a while he sold Jim Walters ("finish the inside yourself") pre-fab homes. Like his father before him, he was for a time a traveling shoe salesman for Endicott Johnson shoes, going all over the Southeastern United States to talk with owners of shoe and clothing stores, helping them order the appropriate shoes to stock their stores. Finally Dicky Ray used his influence to help Jack get a good job crunching numbers at the Department of Labor in Griffin, Georgia. Jack commuted because he wanted to continue living in the mansion built by his father in Fort Valley, that he inherited from Aunt Wincie in 1974. He loved that house.
In May 1992 Jack died at home in his bed in the early morning from a heart attack. Joyce was with him. He was only 64 and had expected to live into his 80's. Obesity and the weakened state of his heart from rheumatic fever shortened his life span.
What a beautiful memory my last visit with Jack is. I was home in Middle Georgia to see my parents, so went by his house to visit him. He was in the yard working with his roses. He had 22 rose bushes. He gave me a grand garden tour of the yard, telling the name of each and how he had gotten it. I was charmed because at that time, unaware of his hobby, I was also into roses in a big way with 30 rose bushes in my yard. It turns out that he and I both tantalized ourselves with wish book rose catalogs. Double Delight, a prize-winning blend, was his favorite variety of rose. Mine is Mr. Lincoln. He and I enjoyed that visit so much and felt very close to each other, very kindred spirits. Since then, every time I see a rose, I think of him and smile.
Postscript: Update on Jack's and Joyce's children--
Kim's first marriage ended in divorce but her second marriage is doing well. She and the second husband have twin boys. Between marriages she was a career woman briefly, working first in a clothing store and then in a bank. She visits Joyce often.
Jill married her high school sweetheart, Mitchell when he went into the Army and got homesick. She later earned a GED but did not get to attend college. They now live in South Georgia where Mitch is a hospital administrator. For many years they were an Army family, moving around every few years. They have two daughters and a son.
John dropped out of college and married his high school sweetheart. They have one daughter and two sons. John's wife looks and acts just like Aunt Joyce. After her children got in school, she went to college and earned her bachelor's degree. Now she teaches in public school in Statesboro. John worked for Piggly Wiggly doing electronic pricing of goods and programming cash registers, in addition to stocking and other grocery related duties. A friend recruited him to transfer to Wal-Mart in the 1980's. He has a very good career at Wal-Mart, working his way up to assistant manager and now manager of the grocery section of the Super Wal-Mart in Statesboro, Georgia. He is much quieter than Jack was and is quite tall, like the Visages (Joyce's family). He seems very competent to handle anything at all that comes his way --someone you'd be comfortable trusting.
Ginger also married her high school sweetheart and did not get a college education. Her career is housewife. She and husband have two daughters. They live on a small farm in rural Roberta, Georgia, the next town past Fort Valley. Ginger looks the most like Jack and is extroverted like him.