About the Dedicatee

Clarence Duncan Johnson was born September 28, 1894, second living child in a family with five children. His family moved to Oklahoma in 1907, and there he resided for the remainder of his life. He graduated high school at age 23, was drafted into the U.S. Army only weeks later, and was shipped off to France in July 1918. Besides his willingness to serve his country and his abiding pride in having done so, Clarence D. Johnson tended the vineyard for 52 years as a teacher and administrator. His first school was a one-room schoolhouse, and he was paid $100 a year, service to include the use of a house, an acre, and a calf. For 32 of those years he was the only elected Republican in a Democratic county as the County Superintendent of Schools. After overseeing the consolidation of all the schools that he had supervised, he retired and devoted full time to raising chickens, rabbits, and great-grandchildren. There has not been another county superintendent in Woods County since his retirement. He died in his sleep, December 13, 1986, in his own bed at the age of 92. A week before he died, he admitted that he still woke up reaching for the dead comrade in that foxhole in the Argonne.

About our Collaborator

Like his grandfather, Dr. Clarence O. Johnson is a veteran and a life-time educator. He teaches high-school and college English and currently lives in Dallas, Texas. Born in the same northwestern Oklahoma town where his grandfather resided, he is a former U.S. Navy musician, a proud graduate of Oklahoma State University, an expert on Stephen Crane, and an avid collector of 78-rpm records, particularly from the World War I era. Dr. Johnson's interest in the Great War was prompted by hearing his grandfather's war stories and singing with him the songs made popular during the war. The realization of this CD is a tribute to his grandfather, to whom he will always be indebted.

Clarence Johnson is a regular contributor of materials and advice to Archeophone Records for its CD releases.