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Post Script: Story of Devoted Librarian's Life Focused on Love, Leadership

Posted on: Friday, 14 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Fred Kirsch, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Apr. 14--NORFOLK -- In the 1970s and '80s, the Blyden Branch Library was more than just a place for a youngster in Huntersville to find a book. It was place where he could find himself.

"It was like a healing station," said Barbara Munden, a children's specialist with the Norfolk library. "It was in a blighted area and kids would come in there with no sense of what they could become, but Miss Johnson knew. She changed lives."

For those who came through the doors of the modest single-story building at East Princess Anne Road and Chicazola Avenue, Shirley Johnson was more than the head librarian. She was a motivator, a mentor and a second mom.

When Johnson, who died April 1 at age 79, wasn't at the library, she was a relentless activist working in the black community on voter registration drives and for better housing.

"Her life was seamless with no breaks," said Rene Perez-Lopez, former supervisor of the Model City Library Service Project. "From eight in the morning 'til 10 at night, she was working to make the community better."

The Blyden Branch was no "Shhh ... No Talking" kind of library. It was a beehive of activity. Johnson had something going on in the two community rooms at all times. It might be a literacy workshop for children with reading problems, a homework help session taught by Norfolk State students, even a dance class.

"One day I walked in and she had 20 kids working away on sewing machines, learning how to sew," Perez-Lopez said.

A short woman, Johnson was known as "stern,""direct" and "no-nonsense," but there was little doubt, Munden said, that she loved you.

Munden was a mother working at Blyden when Johnson informed her, "You are going to do more than put books on a shelf. You're going to college."

Not long after, Johnson showed up with an application for Munden to fill out. Munden became an honor student and earned a degree in criminal justice.

After retiring, Johnson was still a neighborhood force, helping youngsters and continuing her activism, until she had to move to a nursing home.

Said Munden: "She looked past the outside of a person to the inside. It was like she had a third eye that could see what others couldn't."

* Reach Fred Kirsch at (757) 446-2484 or postscripts@pilotonline.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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