'A Silent Giver, ' Lottie Johnson Believes In Working Hard And Being Good To Others

'A silent giver,' Lottie Johnson believes in working hard and being good to others

"Where there is a need you will find Lottie there silently working and expecting nothing in return.” That’s a comment about Lottie Johnson by Lucille H. Porter who nominated Johnson for The News’ Outstanding Citizen of the year recognition. Johnson, 67, lives at 711 Argo Dr.

JOHNSON describes her philosophy of life as just plain working hard. Employed by Greene’s Cleaners for 34 years and Dr. Reed 0. Dingman for five years, she now is a lunch hour supervisor at Wines School.

“She is a silent giver, worker,” Porter said in her letter nominating Johnson, “and she never asks for pay, and many times when she is offered pay she either refuses it or takes it and gives to someone she feels is in need of help.”

Johnson and her husband, Emanuel, have been known “to go out of their way to offer to advance rent payments or mortgage payments to a number of persons” down on their luck as a result of illness or loss of a job, Porter said.

"And the nicest part of it is they don't ask for interest or set a time.  They just say 'pat it back when you get it.'"

"LOTTIE ALWAYS says that God has been good to her and she just wants to be good to someone else."

The nomination letter recalls that last fall Lottie and Emanuel took their pickup truck to an apple orchard and picked a load of apples. They went from door to door giving the apples away. Sometimes they just left them at the door.

“She pays regular visits to all the hospitals and a number of convalescent homes to see and check on the patients and the well-being of the families of the patients.

“She goes into the homes of the sick, elderly, the lonely and cooks a meal, washes for them, cleans up their houses, gives them a bath and never says a word about it, and the only way you hear about it is that the person she helped tells it.”

Johnson, an Ann Arbor resident since 1945, is a member and officer of Bethel A.M.E. Church and the Ann Arbor Community Center. She is past president of the Golden Rule Friendship Club.

- By ROBERT SCHAIRER

NEWS PHOTO JACK STUBBS

Lottie Johnson.