Mattie Shavers Johnson

The morning of Nov. 1, Mrs. Mattie Shavers Johnson, humble historian, educator, musician, author, poet and proud mother chose to leave this world.

She was 104, just four months to the day short of 105.

Mrs. Johnson was born March 2, 1920 on the family farm of Robert S., and Laura Garland Shavers in the Garland community of DeKalb, Texas.

Along with her 10 brothers and sisters, Mrs. Johnson was a fourth-generation member of the Bowie County enclave, a legacy community founded by slaves, slave owners and their progeny. 

Mrs. Johnson’s 10-year project, “The Children of Ruth,” linked roots of that community to a Tennessee migrant and slave owner who traveled west with the sole intention of establishing his dream plantation on storied fertile Texas soil in the 1800s. It didn’t quite work out.

 Nurtured by an austere life on the farm despite the dark shadows of Jim Crow and the challenges of the Great Depression, Mrs. Johnson’s early education included a stint where she earned a degree in music at Prairie View A&M, the second oldest establishment for public higher education in Texas. It was there she met her husband to be, Dr. Charles W. Johnson an Ennis, Texas native who was also attending what came to be an historically black institution. 

 Mrs. Johnson later earned a Bachelor of Science from Tennessee State A&I in Nashville, and two Masters of Science degrees, one at Hunter College in New York, the other, a degree in public health, at Meharry Medical College in Nashville TN, where she taught for several years.

 Mrs. Johnson published fourbooks of poetry in addition to her historical family project. She also edited her late husband’s project, “The Spirit of a Place called Meharry.”

Her works are in Tennessee state anthologies as well.

She was an avid gardener, a bridge enthusiast and, for a time, served as a board member for the Girl Scouts. She was a member of the Ardent Gardeners club, the Iris and the Vagabond Bridge clubs. 

Mrs. Johnson is survived by her three children, Charles William, Phillip Noel, and Livette Suzanne, grandsons Phillip Michael and Justin Turner, her great-grandchildren, her goddaughter and many nieces, nephews and beloved friends.

 She was loved and will be missed as well as celebrated by host of relatives from coast to coast.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Laura G. and Robert S. Shavers scholarship at Fisk University in Nashville. Direct contributions to Fisk University Development Office. 

Memo: Laura G and Robert S Shavers Scholarship

1000 17th avenue North

Nashville, TN 37208

Please keep the Johnson family in your thoughts and prayers.