Mayor Bill Johnson

Mayor Bill Johnson

MEMORIES.

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The retiring mayor recalled highlights of his third career stop.

“First of all, we would have to talk about the employees,” said Johnson. “We have built the finest staff in the state of Arkansas. I say that of both our working staff and administrative staff. Our departments are well manned by conscientious people that want to do right and that is number one. The big thing is consistency. I can’t run the police department. I don’t know how. I let them operate. I am not just a delegator. My job is to give then the support they need and not to micro manage. I let them run their departments.

The second thing is the financial stability. We’ve gone from borrowing money from sanitation department to and organization that is in tremendous shape.

The legislative audit reviews several criteria. One is how much debt you have. We have zero pledged debt. And we also have an open credit line of $15 million and zero debt.”

The financial strength carried the city through a recent tough stretch in the national economy.

Many cities endured cutbacks and had trouble with pension funds.

“Times like 2005 to 2010 was tough times,” said Johnson.

“During those years we did not raise rates (utility or sanitation) on any city customers. We had no service reductions, everything continued to operate and we had no layoffs. When your debt is zero you can weather the storm.”

Johnson had one administrative assistant his entire time in office. In fact, Dorothy Wallace served five mayors over the last 43 years. Johnson showed appreciation by presenting her flowers and a crown at a city council meeting last year.

“She has worked beside every mayor in that time and that in itself deserves an accolade,” said Johnson. “She is well respected by all that work with her.”

The two have another tie that binds. Both endured the loss of an adult child in 2014. They helped each other in the bereavement.

“We talk about it quite often,” said Johnson. “Her daughter Keka died unexpectedly in her sleep. She was a high energy person and ran a program for us out of the Jackson Center.

She had a way with people.

That center was desolate when I came in but one day I went in there and it was full of furniture.

I asked her where it all came from. She said, mayor, you don’t want to know.”

It was a tragedy when my son died late that same year. He was strong as a bull, weighed 246 pounds but lost 60 pounds the first month. It’s a hard thing, parents outliving their children.

It is not supposed to be that way.”

His honor, the twelfth and longest serving mayor in West Memphis history, has another dear sweet Dorothy in his life, his wife of sixty years. They courted for seven months. What about her caught his eye?

“She was 19 years old and everything I wanted in a girlfriend,” said Johnson. “A mutual friend introduced us and I never went out with another girl until I married her.”

The couple had four children plus one, they began raising at on a street near Maddux school.

“We had four by marriage and another we raised,” said Johnson. “We loved kids. We had a house at 526 Bums. I laid the concrete basketball court there.

The book called 60-0, The West Memphis Basketball Dynasty by Billy Woods, there is a chapter in there devoted to us and our relationship with kids in our yard. The black kids always felt welcome there with us in the back yard.”

(See sidebar article for more about the love and the court time for the up and coming undefeated Blue Devils hoopsters at the Johnson house).

Mayor Johnson always kept a King James Scofield Bible on his desk. He has been a member of one church in the city for 58 years. A prayer or a scripture reading was always in order during meetings in his office.

“It’s a critical part of my life, there is no way around it,” said Johnson.