Cecil's father, Jim Johnson, was a sharecropper so his family traveled all around Arkansas and Texas working on strawberry farms.
Cecil joined the Navy at 17 (he told them he was 18) and served as a midshipman on PCE-199 escort for larger aircraft carriers for two years. He returned home to Horatio, where he received a call from his brother Calvin telling him to move to Baytown, Texas to work for Bell Telephone climbing poles as a lineman. That led to a steady job at Humble Oil & Refinery for the next 33 years.
In 1954, Cecil and his wife Clara, lived on E. Fayle St. where John Osteen came to his home and brought him to accept Jesus Christ. He retired and moved back to Mena, Arkansas for 15 years, where he and his wife built and lived in two new homes. Cecil helped build churches with Masonry work and built walls. They moved back to Baytown and they bought a new house on Charles Pl. where they resided until their deaths.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Clara Johnson and daughter, Vicki Lane Johnson. He is survived by his son Larry Edward Johnson and wife Angela, daughter Patti Lyn Johnson, grandchildren David McLemore, Brandi Arnold, Brian Reed, Jessica Morales, Gilbert Mayorga, and Stephanie Mitchell Chauncey.
A visitation will be held, Monday, April 1, 2019 from 5-8pm at Earthman Baytown Funeral Home, 3919 Garth Rd. Baytown, TX 77521. Funeral service will be Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at 10am at Earthman Baytown Funeral Home. Interment will follow at San Jacinto Memorial Park Cemetery, 14659 East Fwy. Houston, TX 77015.
