Joe Leon Johnson

Joe Leon Johnson was born on November 16, 1952 and went to his Heavenly home on October 8, 2025. He was born in Huntsville, Teas. When he was 11 months old we started going to Bible Baptist Church and would continue there for over thirty years. We were all saved while attending this church. There were 7 children in our family and Joe was the middle child. He marched to the beat of his own drum and lived life at an easy pace. We have plenty of wonderful childhood memories.

Joe was just eighteen when he and Virginia married. Their first child born was a daughter and she was his pride and joy. He met Virginia when she was a foster kid in Aunt Louise's house. Not long after Margie Sue was born, Joe joined the Marines and was stationed in California. Virginia didn't like him being gone and constantly threatened to leave him. When he got his leave to come home, he didn't return to California and stayed in Houston. Virginia and Joe had two more daughters only a year apart. He finally went back to California to clear up his military issues.

Virginia and Joe separated and she took the oldest child and went to live with some friends of hers. The other girls she left with Joe and with Mama's help he raised them. Virginia let the family she was living with adopt Margie Sue. Later Virginia died and joe never saw Margie Sue again until she was in her late twenties and wanted to reconnect with him. When they reconnected, she had been married and divorced with two children.

By the time Joe and Margie reconnected, Mama and Joe had moved to Magnolia. Mama moved there in 1988 and we still live there. Joe managed a Domino Pizza for a few years in Tomball and later went to work in some Fabrication shops producing oil field equipment. He want to China and Spain working. In 1998 he met Loretta Dickerson and before long they married. in 2000 Brenda Jolynn was born and he found work closer to home.

Joe enjoyed his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He loved fishing and teaching the grandsons to fish. he enjoyed going to church and being a grandpa. We had big family gatherings for holidays and he was usually the life of the party, teasing the children and being funny. We had family reunions which he rarely missed. He liked taking the children on vacation and watching them have fun.

When Mama became disabled, Joe and myself shared staying with Mama daily, cooking, cleaning, and making sure she got her medicine and my sister stayed with her at night. Joe had two daughters to pass away over the the years and when he passed two were still alive. They had a close relationship and he was a really good and devoted dad.

In late 2020, Joe was diagnosed with kidney cancer and had his right kidney removed. Chemo and radiation followed. He went into remission for about a year and it came back attached to his liver. The recent diagnosis was in late 2024. he again took chemo and immunotherapy.

We knew that the prognosis was not good but had hoped for a year or two. We got nine months before he passed. He made the comment that he didn't know which would get him (the cancer or his heart). It turns out it was neither one his kidney quit working and he refused dialysis. On October 8, 2025 we said goodbye to him for the last time. He is happily in heaven with all those who have gone before him. God was good to Joe and he knew and appreciated all God had done for him. We will all miss him and his humor.