Source: Adams Funeral Home
Transcribed by Bettye Odom
Memorial services for Joe E. Johnston Sr., a widely-known Crosby County resident for almost three-quarters of a century, were at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Church of Christ. Mr. Johnston was 81.
Conducting the rites were Jim York, minister of the local church, and Loyd Hall, minister of the Church of Christ in Gatesville and a former Crosbyton minister.
Mr. Johnston was buried in Crosbyton Cemetery beside the grave of his late wife, Viola, who succumbed July 26, 1982. Adams Funeral Home directed arrangements.
Mr. Johnston was claimed by death at 8:15 p.m. Thursday in Crosbyton Clinic Hospital following an illness.
He recently was selected as Crosbyton´s "Citizen Through the Years."
Born Feb. 7, 1903, in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Joe Johnston was six when his family moved to Emma in Crosby County. They traveled five days in a covered wagon enroute from their farm near Vernon to this county.
He made his first trip into Crosbyton when the family´s small frame residence was placed onto giant steel rollers and pulled by huge steam tractors across the prairie. He had made his home in this community since 1910.
Mr. Johnston spent several years during his boyhood in the Star Hotel, which his father managed.
He began working at the city water works as a teenager and was promoted to superintendent in 1921, a position he held until 1934. His "mechanical genius" led him to own and operate a repair shop for a number of years.
In 1946, he and Mrs. Johnston purchased a farm two miles west of Crosbyton, where they established their home.
The former Viola Robertson and Joe Johnston were married July 7, 1928, in Floydada.
Mr. Johnson was an active member of the Church of Christ and had served as an elder for 22 years.
He also held membership in Crosbyton Senior Citizens and South Plains Antique Car Association.
Friends remember that "Joe built the first radio in Crosbyton." His love for antique cars led him to restore several vehicles, including a 1908 Brush, a 1912 Metz, a 1915 Ford and a 1902 Oldsmobile, which he drove in the 1983 West Texas Pioneers and Old Settlers Reunion parade.
A Craftsman, Mr. Johnston spent countless hours on the vehicles and a 1918 Rumely Oil Pull steam tractor which had been presented to Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum by the Lewis Hickman family of McAdoo. He drove the antique tractor in two old settlers parades here and appeared in numerous area parades with the cars he had restored. Suvivors include two sons, Joseph E. Johnston and Ramon Johnston, both of Crosbyton; one daughter, Julia Montgomery of Crosbyton; four brothers, Tom Johnston of San Diego, Calif., Frank Johnston of San Antonio, Louis Johnston of Seminole and Bill Johnston of Arlington; three sisters, Claudia Little of Richardson, Dorothea Gonovese of Leeds, Ala., and Ora Raymond of Crosbyton; nine grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.
Crosbyton Review, March 1984
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
 |
Crosby County TXGenWeb Project
|
This site may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my consent. The information on these pages is meant for personal genealogical research only and is not for commercial use of ANY type.