News

Jack Johnson, a pioneer packinghouse owner, dies

Jack D. Johnson, who built Western Carolina Auction Co. into a large packinghouse operation, died on March 4.

By Bill Moss, Published: March 11, 2015

Jack D. Johnson, a jovial packinghouse operator who built the family business into one of the largest produce distributors in the region, died peacefully on Wednesday March 4, at Mission Hospital. He was 80.

The 13th child of Josiah Johnson and Cora Belle Whitt Johnson, Johnson was preceded in death by six brothers, Joe, Mutt, Wade, Pete, Al and Jim, and four sisters, Ruby Feagan, Louise Faulkner, Catherine Wright and Carolyn Applin.
Known for his sense of humor, affection for his fellow farmers and devotion to his family and the Methodist Church, Johnson expanded the family produce business through four decades.
"My grandfather saw a need for the local farmers to bring their produce to market because prior to that they were taking to Greenville," said Kathy Johnson Griffin, Johnson's daughter. "So he developed this place where they could sell their produce."
That was the beginning of the Western Carolina Auction Co. Most of the large family followed the patriarch into the business, the seventh generation of Johnsons descended from an Irish immigrant who made his way to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"We always said they were the workforce under his own roof," Griffin said of her grandfather's self-contained picking, packing and bookkeeping crew. "My father's sisters were all involved in the business in all aspects from farming, to getting the produce in and distributing it all over the Southeast. At one time that packinghouse was the largest packinghouse on the East Coast."

Driving down the mountain

The baby of the family, Jack Johnson had flowing blond curls that his mother refused to cut until he was 6, according to family lore. He was never one for a desk chair.
"My father did the farming division," his daughter said. "When he was doing this they were also known as the largest green bean growers in the Southeast."
Farmers on contract with the Johnsons grew fresh beans for supermarket produce aisles, not canneries.
"And he actually hauled the produce," Griffin said. "Daddy told me that he was 12 years old the first time he hauled a load of produce to South Florida. You have to remember that was going down that mountain on that old Greenville Highway. We didn't have the interstate. He became very skilled at driving."
Jack's mother, Cora Bell Whitt, came from "the funniest family," Griffin said. "The kids went around telling everybody that they were just a bunch of halfwits."
Jack was the chestnut that fell close to the tree. His easy way with farmers won him many friends in the bean and cornfields from Maryland to Florida.
"And so funny — he was one of the funniest men you ever met," Griffin said. "We all need to wake up every day and have that sense of humor. It will make your day go a lot better. He was a friend to all people. They were all very funny but my father was probably the clown of the family. A lot of people have said they felt like he was a great spokesman for the produce community and he was loved by the farmers. He was also a man of tall tales."
Even during time off, his thoughts never strayed from the next farm.
"When we were growing up we never went on a vacation that did not involve visiting a farmer somewhere," Griffin said.

Family sustains farm legacy

Although he had a bad heart, Johnson still showed up at work.
"He was over at that packing house (on Upward Road) on Saturday morning and he had just gotten off the treadmill," his daughter said. "He was just his jovial self and was saying I did a mile and half on the treadmill."
Then he sat down in a chair and slumped against a wall. And even though the circumstances seemed to break in his favor — the young man who happened to be working at the time had a degree in physical therapy and was CPR-certified — Johnson did not survive the stress on his heart. He was treated at Pardee Hospital before being transferred to Mission, where he died on Wednesday, March 4.
He leaves behind children, grandchildren and other relations that have stayed in the family business.
Kirby Johnson, Jack Johnson's nephew, runs Flavor 1st, a large produce grower and packer in Mills River. Griffin's son and Jack's grandson, Garrett Griffin, lives in Florida and sells sweet corn the world over. Even though she was "the artist of the family," Griffin never wandered far from rich soil under the nails and sweat on the brow at 11 o'clock of a morning.
"I know all about it and the pressure of when that stuff is pulled out of the ground," she said. "The latest venture I had was selling strawberries down there on the block. A lot of people think of Daddy as the strawberry man because he brought the strawberries up from South Carolina."
The day he didn't farm was devoted to the Methodist Church. His father ingrained that in the young'uns as surely as he had ingrained farming in them.
"My grandfather made certain that they all attended church every Sunday where they were members, at the First United Methodist Church, often arriving in a pickup truck with the children filling up the back," Griffin wrote in a remembrance of her father. "They were very faithful members and even involved in the building of our church. The sand from the creek on their farm was used to make the mortar that was used in the actual construction of our sanctuary."
A member of the Roy Johnson Sunday School class, Jack Johnson was among the first to raise his hand and say, "I'll do whatever you need me to do," she said. "He was a regular usher, he visited the nursery every Sunday morning after his Sunday school class and he also took time during his week to visit people in rest homes."
Johnson is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Betty Lee Garrett Johnson; his four children, Kathy J. Griffin, Jack D. Johnson Jr. and his wife Cindy, and Karla Raxter and her husband, Greg, all of Hendersonville, and Jeff Johnson and his wife, Deana, of Arden. He is also survived by grandchildren Garrett Griffin and his wife, Sadie, Mandi Hester and her husband, Jason, all of Florida; Amy Beth Martin and her husband, Hayes, of Asheville, and Adam Johnson, Austin Johnson, Megan Raxter, and Erin Raxter, all of Hendersonville. He is also survived by great-grandchildren Tripp Martin, twins Atlee and Liam Johnson, Eli Hester and Elizabeth Belle Griffin. He is survived by a brother, Whitt Johnson and his wife, Betty Jo of Fletcher, and a sister, Nancy Harrelson.
A funeral service Sunday at First United Methodist Church drew a large crowd of mourners, including farmers from Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. Burial was in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The family asked that contributions be made to the Hendersonville First United Methodist Church Roy Johnson Sunday School Scholarship Fund, 204 Sixth Avenue West, Hendersonville, N.C., 28739.