Photographs of 'Dee' (Savannah, Ga.) and clipping: Non-Suit in Johnson Case (Waycross)
Book 2, Page 120 ·1928-1935
Transcription
A small torn paper fragment is pasted at the upper-left corner with faint pencil writing. A few words are now legible at higher resolution but the bulk is still illegible: references include “mural in behalf of the su[bject]”, “Mrs. Youmans, presiden[t]”, “[Pre]sent-Teacher Association”, “in the wor[k]”, “appreciation”, “sponsored by the c[ouncil] of the school” — apparently a school-mural / PTA notice unrelated to the Johnson case below.
Upper left — a sepia studio portrait of two young women seated side by side in dark dresses with light collars, hair parted in the middle. Caption beneath in blue ink:
DEE. SAV. GA.
Upper right — a snapshot of a young woman in a light dress standing on a lawn beside a small child or dog at her feet. Caption beneath in blue ink:
DEE. SAV. GA.
Center left — a head-and-shoulders studio portrait of a young woman in a dark blouse, hair bobbed and parted. Caption beneath in blue ink:
DEE – High school Sav.
Newspaper clipping (lower center) – pasted column from a Georgia paper. Headline:
NON-SUIT IN JOHNSON CASE
Widow of Officer Sued For $2,000 Insurance.
WAYCROSS, Ga., Jun[e] – [Non-]suit was declared today [in the case] of Mrs. Lillian Johnson [vs. the] Massachusetts Protective As[sociation a]fter the case had been [heard before] Judge William H. Barre[tt in United] States court.
Mrs. Johnson, wid[ow of John] (Cracker) Johnson, War[e County offi]cer who was killed w[hen he was] thrown from the running [board of a] liquor-laden car some [months ago,] asked collection on a[n insurance] policy. [Remaining text increasingly cropped at the right margin; the defendant company appears to have contended in its opening statement that the contract / insurance policy had been… (text continues into illegible.)]
Caption in blue ink beneath the clipping:
She graduated with highest honor.
AI Notes
A loose-leaf lined-paper album page with three sepia photographs of the same young woman (‘Dee’) and a newspaper clipping pasted at the lower half. A small torn paper fragment is pasted at the upper left, partly legible. Caption in blue ink beneath the clipping notes that ‘She graduated with highest honor.’ The clipping dateline reads WAYCROSS, Ga.; the body identifies the plaintiff as Mrs. Lillian Johnson, widow of ‘(Cracker) Johnson’ (Martin ‘Cracker’ Johnson, the African-American Waycross businessman killed in 1934), suing the Massachusetts Protective Association for an insurance policy after her husband was thrown from the running board of a liquor-laden car. Judge William H. Barrett presided in U.S. District Court. The identification ‘Dee’ is a family nickname; tree placement uncertain.
“Dee” is a family nickname; on the evidence of these photographs and the caption “She graduated with highest honor” the subject is one of the Walker daughters in her Savannah high-school years. The Johnson case described is the well-known suit by the widow of Martin “Cracker” Johnson, a prominent Black businessman in Waycross, Ga., who was killed in 1934. The clipping is pasted into the album for unrelated reasons (probably as a graduation-honor souvenir on its reverse).