Loretto Legacy Monday: Van Johnson

Some people leave a legacy through what they accomplish. Others leave one through the way they respond when life does not go according to plan.
For Van Wayne Johnson, his legacy was built over 45 years by choosing faith over bitterness, gratitude over self-pity, and friendship over isolation.
Van was born December 2, 1954, in Lawrence County, the son of E.G. Johnson and Geneva Ross Shults Johnson. He grew up in the Leoma area and, as a teenager, became one of the most promising young football players at Loretto High School.
At 6-foot-2 and around 215 pounds as a sophomore, Van was already a starting offensive tackle and linebacker for the Mustangs. His coach, Garner Ezell, later remembered him as a strong, fast young player with tremendous potential.
But during a preseason scrimmage against Lawrence County in 1970, everything changed.
Van was making what appeared to be a routine tackle when the impact broke his neck and damaged his spinal cord. He was only 15 years old.
The injury left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
It would have been understandable for that moment to define the rest of Van's life.
He never allowed it to.
For the next 45 years, Van became known throughout Loretto and Lawrence County not simply as the young football player who had been injured, but as a man whose attitude, faith and love for people inspired almost everyone who came into his life.
Years later, Van could still remember the exact moment of the tackle. But instead of spending his life wondering what might have been, he repeatedly talked about what he had been given.
He had family.
He had friends.
He had a community that loved him.
And above all, he had his faith.
Van once acknowledged that there were difficult days, but he refused to stay discouraged for long. He said he had been blessed with people who loved and cared for him, and that was what mattered most.
Those who visited Van often discovered something unexpected.
They might arrive hoping to encourage him and leave realizing Van had encouraged them instead.
Coach Ezell remained close to Van for decades and visited him regularly. He described Van as a fighter and one of the most inspiring people he had ever known. Van had a way of changing the atmosphere around him. There was little room for feeling sorry for yourself when the man facing challenges far greater than your own was smiling, joking and reminding you of everything there was to be thankful for.
That same spirit is repeated in the memories people still share about him.
Friends remember someone who was never bitter about what had happened to him.
They remember his smile.
They remember how easy he was to talk to.
They remember a gentleman who accepted what life had handed him and somehow found a way to make something meaningful from it.
One friend remembered being grateful simply to have known Van and to have been able to call him a friend. Van kept up with local happenings and world events, had a wonderful sense of humor and could carry on conversations that people treasured long afterward. Most of all, that friend remembered his strong faith and the inspiration it provided to everyone around him.
Van remained curious about the world throughout his life. He was an avid reader and embraced the internet as another way to meet and communicate with people. Even through those conversations, he found reasons to be thankful.
He once told the story of corresponding with another disabled man who mentioned how much he wished he could simply make a trip to a store. Van had recently gone to Walmart with his sister. Instead of thinking about everything his injury prevented him from doing, that conversation caused Van to recognize something he could do.
It was typical of him.
Van kept looking for the blessing.
His sister, Lois Rochelle, played an especially important role in his life. Their mother cared for Van for many years, and following her death, Lois moved next to the family home and took responsibility for helping care for her brother.
But Van's family extended far beyond those related to him by blood.
His obituary described the citizens of Lawrence County as his extended family — people who had prayed for him, cared for him, loved him and helped him throughout the decades following his injury.
Van felt that love.
And he returned it.
His connection to football also never disappeared.
Eventually, the annual Loretto-Lawrence County football game became associated with the Van Johnson Cup, presented to the winner of the rivalry game.
For Van, returning to a football field carried emotions few others could completely understand.
During one presentation, he talked about being on the grass beneath the stadium lights and surrounded by football players. For just a moment, the years seemed to disappear.
It felt like he was 15 again.
Yet Van never expressed bitterness about the football injury that had changed his life.
In fact, his perspective was almost the opposite.
He recognized that without the injury, he might have followed an entirely different path. At his size and with his athletic ability, there was reason to believe football could have taken him far.
But Van believed the life he actually lived gave him relationships and opportunities he might never otherwise have known.
He wrote a book.
He developed a fishing device intended to help anglers with physical disabilities.
He spoke in churches and shared his testimony.
He made friends seemingly everywhere he went.
Van didn't consider himself a preacher. He simply talked about his life and what God had done for him.
Over time, his testimony reached far beyond Loretto.
His declining health during the final years of his life eventually made it clear that his time was growing short. Even then, Van approached death in much the same way he had approached life.
With faith.
With preparation.
And remarkably, even with excitement.
Not long before his death, Van spoke with The Tennessean reporter Mike Organ about his own funeral. Van already knew where it would be held, who would speak and some of the music he wanted played.
He even encouraged the reporter to attend.
There was no fear in the conversation.
Van died November 3, 2015, at the age of 60. His funeral was held four days later at Loretto Memorial Chapel, followed by burial at Lindsey Grove Cemetery.
After 45 years in a wheelchair, Van believed something extraordinary was waiting on the other side.
As he told the reporter before his death:
“I'm going to take one step and see Jesus.”
For a man who had been unable to take a physical step since he was 15 years old, it is difficult to imagine a more fitting final thought.
Van Johnson's life could easily have become a story about one terrible moment on a football field in 1970.
Instead, it became a story about everything that happened afterward.
About loyalty.
About friendship.
About gratitude.
About refusing to become bitter.
About a community caring for one of its own.
And about a man whose circumstances limited what his body could do, but never limited the impact he could have on the people around him.
More than a decade after his passing, that impact remains.
That is Van Johnson's Loretto Legacy.
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