Walter and Laura Johnson were married  and settled in Tipton County, Tennessee    Their union produced five children.

Laura Young Johnson (pictured above) the matriarch of the family, was born on November 23, 1868, five years after the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation–abolishing slavery.

Laura was born in Tennessee. Her father was a former slave believed to be named Pete or Peter Young. Few details are known about Laura’s mother, who apparently died when Laura was very young.

Laura was believed to be the eldest of her siblings. She had four brothers–Joseph, Marshall, Eve, and William. Laura is believed to have had a younger sister who died long before her.

Walter was born around the middle of the 1860’s. He was a transient worker who usually traveled from one location to the next seeking work. He married Laura and the family settled around Mason, TN. He always returned home after the end of his work ventures; however, he failed to do so after leaving for a job in the early 1900’s. The morning he left was the last known sighting of Walter Johnson. To this day his whereabouts remain a mystery. It was not apparent whether Walter abandoned the family or succumbed to some mishap. His legacy however, lives on through the devotion of Laura to raise her six children.

Later Laura, or “Granny” as she was called, married a Mr. Parks–who died shortly afterwards.  Granny, now a widow, and having buried son number four, Charlie in 1922, moved to St. Louis.  She followed her sons John Henry and Elmer and remained there until a tornado in 1927 frightened her enough to move back to  Tennessee (along with Elmer’s two young sons John L. and Ozell) and reside with her oldest son, Ocie.

Granny died in 1935 of stomach ailments. She is buried in the Robinson Cemetery in Mason, Tennessee.