Victor Oran Johnson, Jr.'s Obituary
Victor Oran Johnson, Jr. passed away Wednesday, April 11, 2007. He was born March 28, 1915, in Verona, Mississippi to the late Victor O. and Dolly Filgo Johnson. Captain Johnson retired from 35 years of service with Delta Airlines, having started his career in 1940 as a pilot with Chicago and Southern, which later merged to become Delta. At that time there were only 26 pilots flying with the airline. During his flying career, Captain Johnson logged some 32,000 hours of accident-free flying. As a young man out of high school in north Mississippi, Dick Johnson, as he was known, worked as an aircraft mechanic at Southern Air Services in Memphis, TN and there began flying lessons, paving his way for his successful career in commercial aviation.
During the Second World War, when the military was granted special authority over domestic airlines, Captain Johnson flew top military brass, troops, supplies and other vital cargo for the Army Air Corps across the United States. His flying career was a virtual history of aviation, from single engine, open-cockpit biplanes to the Boeing 747 “jumbo” jet.
Captain Johnson met his wife, the late Flava Lee (Ruble) Johnson of Piedmont, Missouri, while she was working as a stewardess, also at Chicago and Southern Airlines. The couple married in 1942 and settled in the Gentilly area of New Orleans, where Captain Johnson was based with Delta. The Johnson family moved to St. Tammany Parish in 1954, where they remained and raised two children, Victor O. Johnson III of Covington, LA and Sally Johnson Fox of Navarre, FL.
Captain Johnson was a member of the Airline Pilots Association and Delta Golden Wings. He was an honorary life Patron of Playmakers Theater, having actively worked to help establish Playmakers in its very early years. Captain Johnson also served as King of the Juno carnival krewe and was a member of the Krewe of Olympia. He was also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Masonic Lodge #475.
Brother of the late William F. Johnson, he is survived by two sisters, Dorothy Elizabeth Guenther and Sarah Dale McKee, both of Greenwood, Mississippi and one brother Charles Carter Johnson of Mesa, Arizona. One of Captain Johnson’s most treasured roles was being Paw-Paw to Jeffrey Paul Johnson, Molly Lee Parsons and Jason Alan Johnson. Father-in-law to Sondra Meiners Johnson and Allan Keith Fox.
Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral service at 5:30 PM on Thursday, April 19, 2007 from the Chapel of E.J. Fielding Funeral Home, 2260 West 21st Ave., Covington, LA and visitation on Thursday from 3:30 PM until service time.
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