Marjory C. Johnson of Shorter

Rural Volunteer Excellence in Service Award Recipient

Marjory C. Johnson addresses those in attendance following her being presented with the Rural Volunteer Excellence in Service Award by Donald E. Williamson, M.D., Alabama State Health Officer.

Ms. Johnson has served as a leader in the Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE) organization for years. She and other WIFE members participated in meetings that were part of the Alabama Rural Health Association's report to the Legislature in 1989 emphasizing that rural health care in Alabama was an unmet need. She and other WIFE members have worked extensively with the Rural Pipeline Programs at the University of Alabama, the Rural Alabama Health Alliance, and others to create and support rural scholars programs to recruit and nurture rural students who want to become rural physicians or other rural health care practitioners. With Ms. Johnson's guidance, WIFE has provided rural field trip experiences and community service experiences for participants in the rural scholars programs and have assisted in other rural health projects seeking to improve health care services in rural underserved areas.

Ms. Johnson currently serves WIFE as State Vice President, Chapter President, Education Chairperson, and Rural Health Chairperson.  Past positions of service in this excellent organization include Chapter President, State President, National Soybean Chairperson, and National Rural Health Chairperson.  She represented WIFE on the Auburn University Advisory Council for the College of Agriculture and the Agribusiness Council.

She has been a member of the Alabama "Agriculture in the Classroom Committee" since its inception, presently serving as a trustee and is also a member of the Macon County Farmer's Federation where she has served as  the Macon County Women's Committee Chairperson for 10 years.

Ms. Johnson is currently employed by the Macon-East Montgomery Academy in Cecil, Alabama as a fourth grade teacher.  She has served as a fourth or fifth grade teacher for 35 years, holding several leadership positions and receiving several awards.  She is a member of and has been an officer in the Alpha Delta Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an international honor society for key women educators.

Ms. Johnson has been married to her husband, Ted, for 36 years.  They have two sons and five grandchildren.  Ms. Johnson is  active in church attendance and service, currently attending the First United Methodist Church in Tallassee.  Her family owns and operates the "Back Forty Restaurant" in Shorter and the "River Bottom Lodge" in Statesville (Autauga County).