Excerpt from
LUPUS NOW FALL 2005
Circle of Hope
A Jazzy Contribution
By Mary Medland
As
a child growing up in Memphis, TN, Johnson’s talent was
encouraged: He played in the church choir and his high school
marching band, before heading to Tennessee State University in
Nashville on a music scholarship.
But it was one of his mother’s closest friends and neighbor,
Ella Mae Flowers, who has lupus, who caused Johnson to want to
support the Lupus Foundation of America—and to donate a
nice percentage of the proceeds from “Life of the Party”
to the LFA.
“Mrs. Flowers worked at an army base and lived across the
street from us,” he says. “She practically raised
us when were young and is one of the nicest, sweetest people you’d
ever want to know.
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