Voncille Valerie Johnson

A Celebration of the Life of Voncille V. Johnson will be held at 11 A. M. Saturday, March 9, 2013 in the Chapel of WEST/HURTT Funeral Home. Voncille Valerie Johnson (nee Crawford) was born in St. Louis Missouri on February 11, 1936 to Phillip Crawford and Callie Caradine Crawford. She was raised in E. St. Louis, Illinois. An avid learner, she graduated Lincoln High School in 1951 at age 15, with a scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale; where she spent two years. She married in 1953, and later course work followed at the E. St. Louis SIU extension. She worked as a manuscript typist and secretary for the U. S. Government agencies from 1955 to 1985, and as a word processing specialist in private industry until retirement in 1995. She leaves behind four children: Diana Griffin, Willie Griffin, Stacy Harris and Lorrie Harris, and four grandchildren. In 1962, she moved from St. Louis to San Francisco, California., seeking new experiences, after 40 years in the work force. She retired from “Silicon Valley” to New Orleans in 1995. She was employed by the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in 1999, registering and assisting conventioneers. She experienced and enjoyed the ambiance of New Orleans that unemployment would have denied her. Consequently, the scenes of the agonized evacuees at the convention center after the hurricane were horribly meaningful to her since she knew its layout and environs so well. To quote Voncille: “I am a Katrina survivor, who entered Louisiana on September 1, 1995, and departed on September 1, 2005. Moving to New Orleans was my choice. It felt like “Home”. Despite the desperate consequences, I cannot say I regretted my move.” She has resided in Dallas/DeSoto since 2005. She has volunteered for the Emeritus Senior Center @ Mt. View College from 2006 - 2008 and at the Meadows Intermediate School since 2009.