Celebration Honoring Curley W. Johnson, Jr.

Pictured (back rowL-R) are: Councilman Jan Davis, Curley W. Johnson, and friend Dorland Winkler. Seated (L-R) Mrs. Elizabeth W. Johnson, and Keynote Speaker Supt. Tommie A. Murphy - Pastor of New Bethel COGIC, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Pictured (back rowL-R) are: Councilman Jan Davis, Curley W. Johnson, and friend Dorland Winkler. Seated (L-R) Mrs. Elizabeth W. Johnson, and Keynote Speaker Supt. Tommie A. Murphy – Pastor of New Bethel COGIC, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Curley Jonson  90th Celebration2
Pictured are guests celebrating Rev. Johnson’s 90th birthday. Photo: Urban News

The Asheville community recently gathered in honor of Mr. Curley W. Johnson, Jr., as he celebrated his 90th birthday. A proclamation naming January 27, 2013 “Curley W. Johnson, Jr. Day” was issued by Mayor Terry M. Bellamy and presented by Asheville City Councilman Jan Davis. The birthday celebration was held in the Fellowship Hall of Tried Stone Missionary Baptist Church of Asheville, NC.

Johnson is the third of ten children born to C. W. and Savannah Williams Johnson, Sr.. He graduated from Stephens Lee High School in 1941, and then attended Penn State Business College in Philadelphia, PA, and Southeastern Community College in Haywood County.  He also served a tour of military duty for the U. S. Navy in War II.

In 1960 Mr. Johnson was called to the ministry, serving as Assistant Pastor of the Garden of Prayer, COGIC of Asheville. He was appointed Secretary to Bishop Wyoming Wells; later Bishop L. B. Davenport appointed him Sunday-School Superintendent for the Western District of NC and then, in 1985, Superintendent of the Asheville District.

In 1987 he received the “Chamber of Echoes” Religious Award presented by the Optimist Club of Asheville. In 1991 Superintendent Johnson was appointed State Ordination Chairman by Bishop Leroy J. Woolard, and later served as President of the Western North Carolina and Eastern Georgia Ministerial Alliance. Through commitment and dedication for the COGIC, Superintendent Johnson was commissioned to design the COGIC Academy Seal and Emblem Badge. In the 2011 the COGIC Academy of Greater North Carolina recognized appointed him to the Ordination and COGIC Academy Board.

Currently, Superintendent Johnson serves as pastor of Burgess Chapel COGIC in Franklin, as Presiding Elder of the Asheville District of Churches of God in Christ, and as State Ordination Chairman of the Greater NC Jurisdiction, Inc.

Johnson’s hobbies are fishing, gardening, writing, traveling, and cooking. He is married to Mother Elizabeth Woody-Johnson, and they are the parents of five children, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.