Still going strong: Johnson enjoys working at 92
Published 4:49 am Saturday, December 16, 2017
Eddie Johnson is 92 years old, but you would never know it. The nonagenarian who has fathered 11 children looks good and doesn’t want to sit down. He wants to keep going.
When asked how he feels to be 92 he said, “Oh fine, and I hope I can make many more.
“People get old and sit back. I get old, and I just get up and do something.”
That has to benefit his health, and there is seemingly always something to do, because he still runs his Johnson’s Decoration Shop from a building right beside his house in the Mitch community. The decorations are mostly flowers.
That is fitting, as well. Johnson said he opened the shop in 1990, after retiring from Pugh’s Florist, where he’d worked for 50 years, beginning when he was just 15.
But 1940 was a long time ago.
Johnson opened the shop with the love of his life, his wife, the former Celastina Maranon, who was from the Philippines — where he was stationed during World War II. Celastina was his designer, and worked with him until her death in 2002.
Now, two of the couple’s children are designers. They are eldest daughter Geraldine Johnson Davis, and Beverly Johnson Magee.
He said he still works because it helps him to “keep moving.”
“It has been said that hard work will kill a person,” Johnson said. “I say hard work may kill you, but growing old has made me young.”
On April 25, 2018, Johnson will turn 93, but it is a likely bet that he stays true to his mantra and keeps moving.