Delores Lillian Johnson June 11, 1929 – May 30, 2026 Delores Lillian Johnson, our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, friend, and matriarch, became an ancestor on May 30, 2026. She transitioned just hours after receiving a kiss from her last remaining child, her beloved son, Scott. In her final hours, she hummed. Perhaps it was a hymn. Perhaps it was memory moving through her body one last time. Whatever it was, we trust she left this life knowing she was deeply loved, cherished, and valued by her son and her entire family, even as memory loss had taken many other knowings from her. 

Delores was born on June 11, 1929, in Syracuse, New York, to Christine Lee Miller and William Henry Turner, Jr. Affectionately known as “Aunt Dodo,” “Aunt Dodie,” and Gramma, Delores lived a long and beautiful life marked by perseverance, care, faith, family, and an extraordinary devotion to Christ. 

She was raised in a close-knit Syracuse community, where she built the foundation for the life she would go on to create for herself and her family. She was a woman who believed in doing things well, keeping a clean and orderly home, working hard, and treating people with dignity. Two of her favorite guiding rules were, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Those were not just sayings to her. They were practices, and how she lived. 

She loved jazz and the blues, and she married a musician, Charles Johnson. From that union came her beloved first daughter, CaSandra Christine Johnson. She had two more children with Theodore Roosevelt English: Gordon Scott Johnson and Jacqueline Lynette Ellis. As a mother, Delores was loving, steady, and determined. She made sure her children had the very best she could provide, even while continuing her own learning and earning certifications in typing, accounting, and bookkeeping. 

Her working life reflected her skill, tenacity, and strength. As a young woman, Delores worked as a seamstress at Flahs & Co. department store and later did bookkeeping and accounting at Rudolph’s Jewelry. She spent the majority of her career at Sears, Roebuck and Company, where she became one of the company’s first African American female sales representatives. A devoted worker, she would have to tuck Scott in the backseat of her car occasionally as she traveled around selling vacuums and other appliances. In every role, she brought commitment, precision, pride, discipline, and grace.

 After retiring from Sears, she relocated to Florida, living in Tampa and Orlando nearby Jackie and Scott. All the while she’d make visits to Detroit to visit her eldest daughter and granddaughter, Yodit. In retirement, she remained active, social, and full of care. She loved playing canasta with her lady friends. Later, she found joy in caring for her grandchildren, Simone, Raevin, Laila and Xavier, and babysitting for neighbors and family friends.

 Gramma Johnson, as beloved family and close friends knew her, was a woman of deep faith. She was a lifelong church member, first at All Saints Episcopal Church in Syracuse, and later when she moved to Tampa, Florida, she and Jackie attended St. James House of Prayer under Rev. Denniston Rupert Kerr (Father Carr as he was known). When she and Jackie moved to Winter Park, Florida, they attended First United Methodist Church in Winter Park, Florida. Her faith was present not only in church membership, but as a member of the church choir, and most especially in how she cared for people, how she endured, and how she continued to love even after great loss. Before leaving Syracuse, she cared for her mother in her own home until “Nan” passed away, continuing a legacy of devotion that shaped generations. 

To know our beloved Gramma was to know a woman who carried history with reverence. She was the family’s memory keeper. She collected photographs, kept impeccable records of friends’ names and addresses, recalled birthdays and anniversaries of friends and neighbors, and preserved stories that helped her family know who we were and where we came from. She held so much and remembered so much more. She gave the family a living chronicle of our own becoming, and endless photo albums documenting the most memorable moments of our lives. 

Delores also knew great sorrow. She endured the heartbreaking loss of two of her children, Sandy and Jackie, and her granddaughter, Simone. And the passing of both of her brothers. And still, she remained strong, open-hearted, and loving. And a little feisty too! 

Delores was preceded in death by her parents, Christine Lee Miller and William Henry Turner, Jr.; her brothers, Harold Lee Turner and William Wirt Turner; her daughters, CaSandra Christine Johnson and Jacqueline Lynette Ellis; and her granddaughter, Simone Odette Ellis. 

She leaves to cherish her memory her beloved son, Gordon Scott Johnson, and his wife, Edith; her nieces and nephews, Dawn (Larry) Butler, Todd (Elizabeth) Turner, Vicki Turner, Ginnie Bruce-Stith, Vicky Wallace, Rachel (James) Jones, and Jonathan (Ariel) Butler; her grandchildren, Yodit Mesfin, Raevin (Diego) Rodriguez, Laila Johnson, and Xavier Johnson; her great-grandchildren, Talia, Tyson, and Luca; and a host of extended family, friends, neighbors, church family, and all who were blessed by her care. 

The family extends deep gratitude to Scott for the devoted care, presence, and love he offered his mother, especially in her final season. The family also offers sincere gratitude to Ariata Memory Care and Nursing Facility in Lake Mary, Florida, for the care given to Delores. 

Our family library has burned. A ninety-six-year-old oak tree has gently fallen to the ground. A well of wisdom, filled with the water that birthed and nourished generations, has run dry. Gramma lived ninety-six years on this earth. Nearly a century of witness of memories, of love poured into children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren, neighbors, friends, and family. Her life was not only long, it was rooted. Disciplined. Generous. It was strong. What a life she lived. 

We delight in knowing that we now have an angel we know by name. May her memory remain a blessing, a guide, and a light for every generation that follows.

 i carry your heart with me

 by E.E. Cummings

 i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) –