Benjamin (BJ) Johnson, Jr.

Benjamin (BJ) Johnson, Jr. (April 18, 1900 – November 14, 1989) was born in Edgecombe County to  Benjamin Sr. and Mary Jane Taylor Johnson. Benjamin Johnson, Jr. attended the schools in Edgecombe County. He had four children and two stepdaughters.

BJ and Mary Newton had three children. They were Rosa Lee, Frank and Ethel.

BJ fathered another daughter, Flossie by Dicy Newton.

Benjamin (BJ) Jr. met and married Gertrude Mears and they had no children. They lived in Rocky Mount at 708 Holly Street. BJ worked on the farm where he was paid by the day.

He stopped working on the farm when he was hired at the Planters Cotton Mill Factory on Cokey Road in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.   BJ died at the Convalescent Nursing Home in Enfield, North Carolina on November 14, 1989.

Gertrude Mears Johnson was born in August 1903 in Manning, South Carolina to the late Henry and Lizzie Mears. She was married to the late Mayer Simon. They had two children, Bertha Holland and Elizabeth Ann Watson. Gertrude was an active member of the Morning Star Church of Christ for forty-three years until her health failed. She sang in the Senior Choir and was a charter member of the Rising Union Club. Gertrude died at Beverly Health Care Nursing Home in Tarboro, North Carolina on Thursday May 10, 1984. Gertrude was eighty-one years old when she died.

BJ and Gertrude were buried in the Unity Cemetery in Rocky Mount.