The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

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SIUC student remembered as gifted writer

The 22-year-old SIUC senior died Friday at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale after suffering a seizure that resulted in several strokes and a minor heart attack.

Johnson was an English major at SIUC, and his friends remember he was always writing and making notes.

"When I met him, he had a notebook in his hand," said James Justin Davis, a friend of Johnson's at Murphysboro High School.

Davis described Johnson as a young man with a dilapidated Dodge Daytona with its back seat piled high with clothing, shoes, CDs and notebooks - lots of notebooks.

"[The car] was a wreck all the time; it always had like 50 or 60 notebooks in the back," Davis said. "He always had either a full-bore notebook or a reporter's pad...or a little yellow legal pad. If he wasn't writing something important, he was writing notes - you know, addresses, phone numbers, things, observations, lists. Random lists everywhere."

His friend Matt Brennan agreed, noting Johnson and his notebook were inseparable.

"I could picture Joe being born with a notebook in his hand," Brennan said. "He was always a writer. He was never off the clock."

Johnson's mother, Sharon, said he showed a strong interest in writing at a very young age.

"When we were living in Virden and he was about 8 or 9 years old, he and a friend would sit out on a love seat in front of the garage and write," Sharon said. "They would exchange and read what the other wrote. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, 'Mom, I'm writing on my novel.'"

Johnson used to tell people when he was a child that he wanted to be a comedian when he grew up.

"He had seizure disease when he was a little boy. It was a mild form of epilepsy," Sharon said. "The doctor asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said a comedian. The doctor just laughed and laughed. He said no one had ever told him that before."

A few years later, Johnson had discovered his passion for writing and told the doctor.

"When he was around 8, he told the doctor that he wanted to be a playwright," Sharon said. "The doctor asked if he knew what a playwright was and Joseph told him. And he was. He wrote plays."

Johnson channeled his enthusiasm for writing into journalism and edited his high school newspaper, the Crimson Express, for four years. He also participated on the wrestling team, where the members knew him as "Joe-Joe."

He also edited the Beacon, a regional newspaper for teenagers through the Adolescent Health Center, where he came to the attention of Krissi Geary, the community development coordinator and Beacon adviser.

"He was one of those really special people," Geary said. "His writing touched a lot of people, more than he knew."

Johnson and Geary became friends and stayed in touch after he left the Beacon. When Johnson, who graduated from Murphysboro High School in 2000, began to talk about college, Geary introduced him to Mike Lawrence, journalism professor and current interim director of the Public Policy Institute at SIUC.

"I could tell immediately he had a tremendous amount of potential as a journalist," Lawrence said. "He was leaning toward attending [Louisiana State University], but said he was also considering coming to SIU. I told him, 'If you do, I'll take a special interest in you.'

"We had lunch from time to time and met in my office from time to time. We were scheduled to have lunch last Wednesday. A few days before that, I got word that he had been stricken and was in the hospital."

While in college at SIUC, Johnson wrote for the Southern Illinoisian sports desk as well as the Daily Egyptian.

Lawrence delivered the eulogy at Johnson's memorial service, which was held on Monday at Murphysboro Middle School, where Johnson's mother Sharon had been principal.

"I felt a kinship with Joe from the moment I met him," Lawrence said in his eulogy. "We had a great deal in common...his passion for journalism at an early age. His recognition that the written word often had changed the course of human events and still could."

Brennan met Johnson while the two were residents in Kellogg Hall. Brennan remembers feeling relieved to have found another journalism student. While on a 2002 trip to New Orleans, Brennan said Johnson brought a notebook everywhere they went. Johnson came equipped even while they were barhopping along Bourbon Street. The notes would later be composed into poetry or for a newspaper column.

"I thought that was classic Joe," Brennan said.

Brennan, who worked at the Daily Egyptian with Johnson, also said his friend was completely devoted to everything he set his mind to.

"He was a good friend," he said. " Full of passion. He was always really into what he was doing. Writers were lucky enough to have known him.

"[Monday, the day of the funeral] was about remembering."

Sharon Johnson remembered that while writing a column for the Daily Egyptian, her son sometimes took some provocative positions.

"But no matter how far he went, it was always for the good," she said.

Geary said Johnson seemed unaware of the good he had done through his writing.

"He was the best of his generation," Geary said. "He was politically and socially conscious and he wanted to make a difference with his writing. He didn't realize before he died that he already had."