About Louise R. Johnson

Louise R. Johnson was born on October 25, 1910, to Garfield Devoe and Minnie Lee Rogers. She was the oldest of nine siblings. Her parents valued education in a time when school was only offered three months out of the year. Lousie R. Johnson’s father, G.D. Rogers, purchased the old Manatee County Courthouse and started the first school for black children in the county. The school was named Lincoln Academy Grammar School. Louise R. Johnson finished school at Lincoln Academy Grammar School and attended Bethune Cookman College, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, at the young age of 14.

Louise R. Johnson graduated high school from Bethune Cookman High at the age of 17. One would think that teaching was always the dream for her, but initially Louise R. Johnson wanted to be a lawyer. She wanted to attend a United Methodist School, so she chose Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. Falling ill in Chicago caused her to return home. After being nursed back to health, she chose not to go back to Chicago, but instead made Florida her home. Louise R. Johnson graduated from Florida A&M University, where she received a degree in education.

Louise R. Johnson taught for six years in Dixie County, where she also ran and operated her father’s business, Shamrock Funeral Home. After ending her six years in Dixie County, Louise R. Johnson moved back to Manatee County where she taught for 36 years.

Louise R. Johnson's many accomplishments included being a mother of six children; five girls: Cherie, Thomacita, Jeanine, Johnyta, Jackie, and one son, Lincoln. In the early 1970s, Louise R. Johnson began her volunteer career with Florida’s 4-H Club, which lasted 19 years. Through her community service work with 4-H, Louise R. Johnson started Community Faith Action. In 1975, Ms. Johnson was named one of Florida's Most Outstanding Women by the governor and the Commission on the Status of Women, and in 1987 was awarded Manatee County's Distinguished Citizen Award.

In 1977, Louise R. Johnson was the first African-American to serve on the Manatee County School Board. In 1987, she was awarded the Manatee Counties Distinguished Citizen Award. With over 1,000 requests, on October 9, 1994, Louise Rogers Johnson Middle School was opened and named in her honor. The Board of County Commissioners of Manatee County named that February 26, 2015, shall be known, designated, and set aside as Louise R. Johnson Day in her honor. 

Wakeland Elementary and Johnson Middle merged into one school, Louise R. Johnson K-8 in 2015, keeping the namesake and legacy of Ms. Johnson's values for community and family alive as the only International Baccalaureate elementary and middle school in the district.