Lessons From A Life Well Lived

M. Sharon Herbers, Ed.D.

Good evening. The play, “Aunt Lilian’s Deed” is told from the perspective of Dr. Lilian W. Johnson. I began researching her life almost ten years ago and she has led me on an amazing adventure. I have learned many lessons and I would like to share some of those lessons tonight.

Have you ever been tempted to turn to the last chapter in a book to see if it is worth investing your time? That’s where my journey began. I found an editorial published in the Memphis Press Scimitar following her death in Bradenton, Florida in 1956. I was moved by the description of this life well lived.

Do you ever think about how you will be remembered? Have you ever thought about what your obituary might say? Dr. Lilian did. She actually wrote her own obituary, that’s the kind of person she was. She would never leave it to others to get the facts straight when she was quite capable of telling the tale—simply and honestly.  Her version was used as the basis in some newspapers but the editor in Memphis knew her well. He apparently felt there was a great deal more to say and to learn from her life. It is an honor to share his summary of a life well lived.

[Read the editorial from Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 24, 1956] (permission to use has been requested)

So let’s put this in perspective. A woman born in 1864, earns a doctorate in 1902, leads a Congressional commission to Europe in 1913 to study agricultural cooperatives and in 1915 at age 51 moves to Grundy County to establish one of her own. Unfortunately, this venture failed but Dr. Johnson was undaunted. For the next seventeen years, she focused on collaborating with others to bring improvements.

The article mentions her involvement in Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Her parents were social reformers and her mother was actively involved in WCTU. When Dr. Lilian settled here, she believed that the moonshine was a by-product of the depressed conditions. She reasoned that improved roads would alleviate the need to use the grain for such a purpose because there would be other uses and new markets. She was appointed to the Tennessee Highway Association and she wrote an article to highlight the problem.

But then, one day while leading children from Summerfield School on a nature walk, she found a still on her own property. To add injury to insult, the moonshiners were quite perturbed when Dr. Johnson hosted a meeting of parents at her home that evening. They did not know that the meeting had nothing to do with their still. They assumed it did and fired shots into the house as a warning. That did not set too well with this feisty lady.  She launched a crusade to establish a WCTU chapter and shut down their operations. I don’t think she was successful in driving the moonshiners out of this county but I’m sure that she made life miserable for many customers whose wives were involved in her WCTU local.

As Mr. Meeman mentions, her primary concern was education. She taught at Summerfield School for two years, she became a member of the Board of Education. She convinced May Justus and Vera McCampbell to move to the mountain to teach. Dr. Johnson went to Memphis every year to solicit funds from her friends and supporters to pay for additional salaries for teachers in Summerfield. She worked with the Red Cross to send a nurse who decided to stay in the community.

Many of the other crusades—the resurrection of Ravenscroft, for example, took place after Dr. Lilian left Grundy County in 1932.It happened in 1937. At 73 years young, she was partnering with the Memphis newspaper to bring resources to the community. She spent months living at the community house in Ravenscroft.

Was she a staunch crusader who was only happy when leading others into battles? No, she did eventually retire to Florida but she made a decision when she was in her eighties to either join an organization or found one every year. She was a founding member of the AAUW chapter in Bradenton, she was actively involved in other civic and church organizations. She shared her secrets for successful living with members of the Manatee American Association of University Women (1954), one of the organizations of which she was a founding member:

First and foremost, seek the will of God and do not depend on others for answers.

People need intellectual and spiritual sustenance. Feed the mind and soul, as well as the body.

Accept change without resentment.

Practice religious tolerance.

And most importantly, follow your dreams. Worthwhile seeds will flourish in time. Never hesitate to do what is worth doing and be patient.

Sage advice from a wise woman. I can only hope that fifty years from now someone will tell the story of another life well lived and that story will be mine. Or will it be yours?

References

AAUW hears Dr. Johnson (1954, February 28). The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 22.

Meeman, E.J. (1956, September 24). Editorial. Memphis Press-Scimitar, Lilian Wyckoff       

            Johnson file, Memphis Public Library and Information Center.