Global Ministries is saddened to learn of the Death of Ava Dale Johnson
Global Ministries is saddened to learn of the Death of Ava Dale Johnson
Ava Dale (Plummer) Johnson
November 22, 1925 – March 17, 2014
Global Ministries is saddened to learn of the death of Ava Dale Johnson, who, together with her late husband Charles, served as a missionary teacher of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 1952-1959.
From depression-era Oklahoma, Ava Dale Johnson was born in 1925. She was raised by a single mother in Oklahoma City where she liked to tap-dance on the sidewalk and roller skate. She was the first member of her family to go to college. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, and later a Master of Arts degree from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The Johnsons served two terms as teachers with the Community of the Disciples of Christ in the Congo (CDCC), their first term at Bolenge. Their story is captured in the book If the Rains Don’t Cleanse written by their son, Ben Patrick Johnson, of Los Angeles.
After their missionary service, the couple taught on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona 1959-1964, then relocated to St. Paul Minnesota where Charles took a job teaching French at Macalester College and Ava Dale a youth education position at Macalester Plymouth United Christian Church where she staged musical-theater productions. In the 1970’s Ava Dale Johnson became one of the first ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers in the St. Paul, Minnesota schools. The Johnsons befriended the local Hmong community and founded the Hmong Book Project, translating Hmong folk tales into English for ESL use. Ava Dale took commonly known oral Hmong folk tales such as “The Woman and the Tiger” and created illustrated books to teach children and adults English. She also compiled scholarly books that included Survival Hmong for Teachers.
Ava Dale Johnson was a peace activist who supported nonviolent approaches to conflict and causes related to ecology, values that dovetailed with her Quaker roots. She enjoyed reading nonfiction and books on theological, political and sociological matters. But nothing mattered to her more than helping other people.
Ava Dale is survived by a large family of six children (Jim, Susan, Win, Peg, Lee, Ben), 18 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. She inspired many with her endless generosity; Quaker values of peace, justice, and simplicity; love of beauty; and joie de vivre. She died peacefully at home in St. Paul on March 17, 2014. Her memorial was held June 14, 2014 at the Macalester College Chapel. The family requests that gifts in her memory be made for the Congo Protestant University to: North American Liaison Bureau, c/o Ben Hobgood, P.O. Box 545, Penney Farms, FL 32079.