County: Hertford Marker ID: A-86 Date Cast: 2014
MARKER TEXT
F. ROY JOHNSON 1911-1988 Folklorist and publisher. Left newspapering 1962 to chronicle folkways & peoples of northeastern N.C. Office stood here.
MARK IT!
Information courtesy of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
“F.
Roy Johnson is a hunter
of the Johnson Publishing Company,
of sorts, a man after
he published twenty-two books on
rare game. His prey is
topics that included Indians, the Gatling
often elusive as a fox, and the terrain he
gun, folk tales, legends and myths, the
covers can be delicate. He stalks the folk
Roanoke colonies, Nat Turner, peanuts,
tales and memories of another time.” So
riverboating, and witches and demons.
began a feature story in the September
He
prided
himself
on
being
a
1, 1981, issue of the Norfolk Virginian-
mechanical master and never purchasing
Pilot. The subject was Frank Roy Johnson,
any new equipment, but rather recycling
a native of Bladen County who moved
outdated machines cast aside by the
to Murfreesboro in 1940. He was a 1932
local community college. As a one-man
graduate of Duke University, where he
operation, he personally set the type and
worked on the student newspaper and
bound every one of his copies by hand.
met his future wife, Margaret Hamlin.
He also reprinted works by Captain John
His newspaper career began in 1934
Smith, Thomas Harriott, John Brickell, and
in Surry. Six years later he moved his
Sallie Southall Cotton. He co-authored
equipment to Murfreesboro where he
several books with Frank Stephenson.
founded the Daily Roanoke-Chowan News
Stephenson counts Johnson as his
and the Northeastern Carolina News. He
mentor, as did Parramore, longtime
merged the two titles in 1947 and, in 1962,
professor at Meredith College. Johnson
sold his paper to his competition, the
worked with the Division of Archives and
Parker Brothers Company of Ahoskie.
History to microfilm twenty-three reels to
of his newspapers. His estate, settled
concentrate on his primary interest,
The
sale
freed
Johnson
up
up by Stephenson, deposited his notes,
the history and folklore of northeastern
research materials, and correspondence
North Carolina. With a young Thomas
in the State Archives. In 1976 Johnson
Parramore, he published “The Roanoke-
received the Brown-Hudson Folklore
Chowan Story” as an 18-installment
from the North Carolina Folklore Society.
feature in his paper. Under the auspices
He died on October 17, 1988.
East Main Street in Murfreesboro REFERENCES F. Roy Johnson Collection, North Carolina State Archives Carolina Comments (January 1989), p. 11
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