Lillie Mae Johnson: Treasure found in Andersonville

Tabby Crabb

ANDERSONVILLE — Lillie Mae Johnson is a hard worker. She moved to Sumter County in 1945, with her husband and has been here all but two years since then. She's a hard worker and distilled those values in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"I've been out working in my garden today cutting scuppernong vines down," states 87-year-old Lillie Mae Johnson matter-of-factly.

Johnson was born and raised just a few miles from Andersonville in Macon County and graduated from Oglethorpe High School in 1939.

"The school house burned the year I started school. We went to school upstairs above the dry goods store. My uncle helped rebuild the school and we started going there after Christmas," she says.

While she was in high school, Johnson was interested in the theater and wrote a play that she and her friends presented in the Oglethorpe High School auditorium.

"We had a 50-year reunion at the high school a few years ago and we all sat on the stage in the same order we were in during our graduation," she remembers.

She and her husband raised a large family based on Christian principles. The church has always been a large part of her life. At one time she taught Sunday School at Andersonville Baptist Church before joining Andersonville Methodist Church.

"I went to the Methodist church on Sunday mornings and the Baptist church on Sunday afternoons. I go to Sunday School and church every Sunday morning now at Andersonville Methodist Church. I'm going to Camp Dooly tonight," says Johnson, "It's my night to go over there."

Johnson collects ceramic angels, dogs and cats.

"My sister-in-law made the nicest ceramics and she gave me some to start my collection," she says while seated in her comfortable living room surrounded by a lifetime of memories and memorabilia.

"That chair, that chair and that churn over there are mine," she adds. "I used to make butter in that churn. We had one cow for so long when I was growing up. My mama and I did the milking but my husband did it after we were married. We made a lot of butter in that churn."

Prominently displayed in her living room is a life-sized doll sitting in a child-sized chair.

"Gladys Coker got that doll when she was 10 years old. Santa Claus brought it to her. The doll's name is Virginia Pearl, named after her piano teacher. Virginia Pearl, the doll, is over 90 years old," she continued.

Johnson remembers Pennington Church, Brother Lawrence and his impact on the Andersonville Community.

"Brother Lawrence had dug a basement for his house. I don't know how he did it. He did a lot of good,” she said. “I remember him riding in his Model A. He didn't care what you were wearing. He'd say, 'Come on and let's go to church.'"

Johnson has been living in her same house in Andersonville since 1955.

"I enjoy living here in Andersonville," she says with a nice smile. "My husband worked at the canning plant. I worked at the canning plant in the summertime. I love to sew and used to make all my own clothes. I love to cook, too. Have you had my four-layer caramel cake? I don't make it with brown sugar," she adds.

With a son and a daughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Johnson's family influence spreads across several generations.

"One grandson works for Delta Airlines in Atlanta and travels all over," she says as she displayed a recent postcard he sent from Romania. She is proud of her family.

"My son doesn't have a lazy bone in his body and grows a large garden," she says.

Johnson is responsible for putting the flowers up at church. Her garden has splashes of color with lilies, roses, petunias and other spring and summer flowers. She also is growing some tomatoes and some peppers to make pepper sauce.

“We're due for a good rain," she points out. "It hasn't hardly rained in Andersonville since May. I thought it was going to rain some last week and I said, 'Lord, please let it rain,' but it didn't do much. I think it might rain on Thursday."

Johnson also cans a lot of her own food.

"I put up corn, peas and butter beans. Last Thursday, I put up 10 quarts and seven pints of snap beans. Somebody gave them to me, and I've already put up some squash. I'd like to make a blackberry pie, but the blackberries got ruined by the drought. We haven't had any in three years. I miss it," she says.

Another of her interests is keeping an eye on Andersonville. She says she always lets Andersonville Mayor, Marvin Baugh, know what's going on on her street. She takes an active interest in her community and her friends and neighbors. One Christmas, a neighbor was stricken with illness and wasn't able to prepare Christmas dinner for her family so Johnson stepped in and prepared an entire dinner for her neighbor's family after fixing a large holiday dinner for her own family. This is the kind of person that she is.

"My Aunt Lottie had a bantam hen that she had stuffed when it died and she kept it on her mantle. When Lottie died that stuffed chicken vanished and nobody ever saw it again. We don't know what happened to it," she says continuing with stories of her family. She loves to visit.

When asked where she gets so much energy to accomplish so much during the day she says, "The good Lord gives me energy. I don't sit around and watch television. I can always find something to do. I eat good food, always have."

Lillie Mae Johnson has a deep love for her community and her friends and family. She is a member of the World War II generation that Tom Brokaw calls, "The Greatest Generation." Certainly she must have a selfish bone in that body someplace but it's not evident.

"I need to fertilize my day lilies soon so they'll be beautiful for church," she notes standing in her garden near downtown Andersonville.

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