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Ruby Louise Johnson, 69, of Biloxi, died March 6, 2008, in Osyka,
where she was convalescing after carotid artery surgery. Visitation
is noon Monday at Jones Family Funeral Services in McComb until
services there at 2 p.m. A graveside prayer service will follow in
Osyka Cemetery. A memorial service will be held on the Mississippi
Gulf Coast at a later date.
Miss Johnson was born Jan. 27, 1939, in Osyka, to S.B. and Jennie Lu
Hart Jones. She graduated as valedictorian from Osyka High School
and obtained an associate degree from Southwest Mississippi Junior
College and a bachelor’s degree in business education from
Mississippi College.
She was a member of the Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi and was
baptized at Osyka Baptist Church. Miss Johnson was a woman of many
talents, most of them self-taught. At the top of her interests was
heirloom sewing, pursued from childhood with a craftsman’s zeal. In
recent years, she designed and hand-stitched original christening
gowns and bonnets for each of her grandchildren. At her death, she
was finishing gowns for twin grandchildren in their upcoming
baptism.
She was a genealogy buff, proud of her family’s 200-year history in the
Deep South. She shared the fierce temperament and sense of humor of her
Scots-Irish forbears. She loved to scour old court files and census reports,
or tromp through cemeteries in search of missing links in her family’s
history. She was a painter, floral designer, bingo player, theater patron
and a voracious reader.
Miss Johnson was an independent, opinionated woman unafraid to start over in
her career or life. She rallied from setbacks, including the loss of a child
in 1986, the loss of her home in Hurricane Katrina and serious illnesses.
For many years, she taught adult business education at the Hinds Junior
College vocational-technical center in Vicksburg. She also worked for the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg.
After surviving a serious automobile accident that claimed her daughter’s
life, Miss Johnson returned to college in her late 40s and refocused her
life on helping others. She earned a master’s degree in social work from the
University of Southern Mississippi, joined the Veteran’s Administration
social work service in Biloxi and became a licensed clinical social worker.
She retired in 2004.
She was most proud of her children, quick to brag that both sons were
attorneys and fond of showing off paintings by her daughter.
Miss Johnson was preceded in death by her parents; her daughter, Jennie
Katherine Johnson of Vicksburg; and a brother, S.B. Jones Jr.
Known as “Bebe” to her family, she is survived by two sons, Hayes Johnson
and wife Colleen of Long Beach and Chris Johnson of Bay St. Louis;
grandchildren, Jacob and Kray Johnson of Bay St. Louis and Hayes, Daley and
Griffin Johnson of Long Beach; two beloved sisters, Kay Reynolds and husband
Buddy of Petal and Johnny Craft and wife Jerry of Osyka; nieces, nephews,
other relatives and many friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Miss
Johnson’s name to a favorite charity.
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