McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
The movie �Seabiscuit� has attracted much attention this year. It has even inspired home d�cor. From figurines to bed linens horses are the �in thing.� Most admire the beauty of the horse even if they don�t own or ride them.
For Willie Lee Johnson, the former jockey now living quietly with his wife Hazel just east of Calhoun, riding horses was a passion in his young days. He has the distinction of riding against the famous and beloved Seabiscuit when he was just a teenager. He had a distinguished career as a jockey. The following is his story in his own words:
I was born Willie Lee Johnson on November 8, 1920 in Philpot, Kentucky. As a young boy I always loved horses and I was very small for my age. I never heard of race horses and race tracks until one day my Dad had to have a veterinarian for one of our horses, so he got a Dr. Hendricks from Owensboro to come and see about the horse. And that is the beginning of my story.
Dr. Henricks got in touch with a lady by the name of Mrs. J. R. Murphy from Evansville who had racehorses and she took me under contract. That was the year of 1935. I made $10.00 a month and 50cents a day to eat on and I lived at the barn with the horses.
I was fourteen years old and weighed sixty-three pounds.
I started riding in 1936. I won my first race in 1937. I was the leading apprentice jockey and also the second leading rider of the country. I held the world record on a horse named �Double Call� in 1940 and I held that record for 10 years. I rode a horse named �Kender� and then I rode �Fighting Back� in 1951.
I guess I am the only jockey that ever rode 68 winners in 26 days. That was in 1937 at Ellis Park and at that time it was called Dade Park. I also won the Governor�s Handicap in 1937 and 1938 on a horse named �Little Nymph.�
I rode at every racetrack in the country at that time and in Cuba and Mexico. It was in Mexico that I finished 3rd to �Seabiscuit.� I rode for 22 years taking time off for three years to serve in the army. I was discharged in October 1945 and returned to riding in November 1945.
I retired in 1958 to my farm in McLean County that I bought when I was seventeen years old. It was a big change for us but we loved it. My wife Hazel and two children, our son Willie (Shorty) Johnson Jr. and our daughter Sheila who is now deceased.
I will say that I had a lot of falls and this life was not all roses but I have not been on a horse since I retired. I knew if I ever got on one I would go back in the racetrack again and I really had to fight a weight problem.
In November 1999 I was inducted into the Owensboro-Daviess County Tourist Commission �Hall of Fame� and that was one honor I will always remember. I will soon be 83 years old and I have lived a life of memories.
Thank you for taking time to read my story. -Willie Lee Johnson
Recently Blythe Howard and I visited Willie and Hazel in their home where the walls are lined with paintings and pictures of him and the horses that he rode. There are stacks of well-documented pictures and a scrapbook of newspaper accounts of the races that he rode in.
Memories of being a seventeen-year old jockey racing against Seabiscuit linger in his mind but his favorite horse was Hillyer Court that he rode to victory in the $25,000 New Orleans Handicap.
Thanks to Willie for writing his story and for allowing us to copy some of his pictures for the museum.