Danny Bartell Johnson, of Ninnekah, Oklahoma, born August 7, 1934 in Conroe, Texas, died of natural causes at his home early Wednesday morning, January 3, 2024.
Johnson was a carpenter and a builder. His great joy in life was working with his hands, and this special talent took him far and wide, earning him a living as well as a reputation as a dependable handyman. He was the first in his family to attain a college degree, attending University of Texas, and later University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO), studying advanced math and business.
Though generally a man of few words, he was worth listening to when he talked, and you could always count on his dry sense of humor for a laugh. He liked to tell stories of his humble beginnings in East Texas, sharing a single bedroom with his six brothers, while his only sister had a room all to herself.
Once old enough, he set out on his own and spent his youth traveling the world — building stages in New York City, surveying in Alaska, and getting to know Europe from his military station in Germany. On returning to Texas, he worked at NASA and also as a contractor for various builders in Conroe.
By middle age, he met his wife Lauren Johnson and moved with her to Ninnekah, Okla. to build a life in the country. He maintained a rigorous work ethic, waking every day at the crack of dawn to feed the farm animals. Only after morning chores were complete would he return home for breakfast and a cup of black coffee before making the half hour drive into town for work. He retired with a pension from the U.S. Postal Service.
He liked gardening, and had a soft spot for homegrown tomatoes, collards, and speckled butter beans. In true southern fashion, he could whip up a mean cornbread, and paired it both with pintos for dinner and sorghum molasses for dessert.
Although he spent most of his life working with numbers, he also enjoyed reading, and was known to quote Shakespeare and other poetry on occasion.
As a devoted husband, he spent his later years renovating and expanding on the house he owned with Lauren.
He was handy to a fault — working long hours, fixing whatever needed fixing, and often volunteering his time to family and people in town who needed his services.
As a grandfather, he was playful and patient, taking his grandkids to feed the horses and letting them ride in the back of his Chevy pickup.
Fond of animals, he was a caretaker of the land and the creatures that lived on it. He fed many mouths through the years — dogs and cats, horses and ponies, chickens and roosters, not to mention raccoons — and he was the only human friend to a certain salty Charlie Puddleduck.
He is preceded in death by wife Lauren (Berta Lee) Johnson; his father Beecher Jones Johnson and mother Jessie Swift Johnson (née Melson); brothers Lewis Walker Johnson, James Durwood Johnson, B.J. Johnson, William Robert Johnson, Jesse Carl Johnson, and Jerry Lynn Johnson; and half brothers and sisters Maurice Johnson, Marcella Johnson, Hortense Johnson and H.B. Johnson.
He is survived by sister Nancy Sue Johnson; niece Louann Moore Hallock and her husband; nephew David Moore, his wife Brenda and David’s children Jason Moore, Chelsea Greenhouse, and Shelley Moore. Dan is also survived by step sons Dave Roberts and Mark Roberts and their respective wives Fahaa Baden-Roberts and Karen Roberts; step grandchildren Clifton Roberts and Bronwen Roberts; and step great-granddaughter Aria Chung.
The funeral arrangements are being handled by Ferguson Funeral Home in Chickasha, Okla., with a graveside service to be held Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. in the Ninnekah Cemetery.