The Family of Wayne Wright Johnson, Sr. of East Texas

Wayne Wright Johnson, Sr. was born in Weldon, Texas in 1879 and was orphaned at age 8. He had a lifelong love of learning and overcame many adversities and graduated from Prairie View A&M College. While at Prairie View, he played on the first football team. He became well known as a student of botany and Dr. George Washington Carver offered him a research position at Tuskegee Institute.

Professor Johnson was called to teach and he and his wife Elsie Mark Johnson started several schools for Negro students in Corrigan and other small towns in East Texas. Wayne Johnson and Elsie Mark Johnson had eight children: E.C. Johnson, teacher and principal;Eleanor Johnson Griffin, teacher;Helen Johnson Bluitt, teacher;Wayne Johnson, Jr., labor union international representative;Herbert Johnson, doctor;Langston Johnson, teacher and principal;Versa Johnson Barnes, business owner;and Opal Johnson Smith, teacher and principal.

Paw-Paw, as we grandchildren called him, took every opportunity to remind us that "Those to whom much has been given, much is required".

I have also included my mother's family (the descendants of Guilford Drake who was married in 1860 to Fannie Rodwell in Warren County North Carolina), my husband's family, the descendants of Moses Gaskin (born in Virginia in 1850) and the descendants of Commodore Greene (of West Virginia).

Specifically, I am interested in any information on the parents of my grandfather, Wayne Wright Johnson, Jr., the Drakes of North Carolina and Louisiana, and the Greenes of West Virginia.

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