Willa Johnson, Oklahoma City's first Black city councilwoman, has died at 83

Willa Johnson, the first Black woman to serve on the Oklahoma City council, died in her sleep overnight Thursday. She was 83.

After a 20-year civilian career at Tinker Air Force Base, Johnson was elected to the city council in 1993 and served Ward 7 until 2007. Johnson then spent a decade as an Oklahoma County commissioner for District 1, retiring in 2017.

Public service was Johnson's "mainstay," said her Douglass High School class of 1957 classmate and The Black Chronicle publisher Russell Perry.

"We lost a good one," Perry said.

She was involved in the passage of the original MAPS sales tax to fund downtown development and MAPS for Kids, which rebuilt Douglass High School at its original NE 8 and Martin Luther King location.

She helped lead the reopening of the James E. Stewart Golf Course, and for years pushed for a new recreation center at Douglass Park in northeast Oklahoma City. That new center is set to open later this year and is named for Johnson.

She also founded First Tee of Metropolitan Oklahoma City, received an honorary doctorate degree from Oklahoma City University and was a longtime member of St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

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An advocate for northeast Oklahoma City

Johnson was the catalyst for many advancements in northeast Oklahoma City, referring to her ward as "seventh heaven."

She successfully secured bond money to rebuild NE 23 between Broadway and Interstate 35, a corridor neglected for decades. The makeover included sidewalks, vintage style lighting and resurfacing.

Johnson once shared that her family moved to Oklahoma City when she was three years old, first living in a small home in Walnut Grove along the river. Walnut Grove was an impoverished neighborhood dotted with oil derricks.

"The river was called greasy," Johnson said. "The reason they called it greasy is because it always had a black film floating on top of that thing."

Johnson's father eventually bought a family home in the Edwards addition, the neighborhood built by early Black developers Walter and Frances Edwards. Years later, Johnson as a councilwoman led in adding the neighborhood to the National Register of Historic Places.

Johnson got her start at City Hall when she agreed to lobby against a drug treatment center in a Black neighborhood.

"They asked me to be their advocate because they knew I talked too much," Johnson joked. "The incumbent decided to let it go in. I went running around town to get someone to run against that man. I didn't think he deserved to be our city councilman."

After not finding anyone to run against the incumbent, Goree James, Johnson ran against him. She didn't win during her first run. But she won against five candidates during her second run in 1992.

Johnson will be missed by friends, church, city as a whole

Perry said when he got the call Friday morning letting him know Johnson had died, he didn't believe it at first. But his next thought was that she would be missed by Oklahoma City, he said.

Perry said he will always remember how much Johnson loved to sing, and how she would come by his office to talk about anything.

"I just can't find enough words to say that we will miss her," Perry said.

The Rev. Major Jemison of St. John Missionary Baptist Church told The Oklahoman via text that Johnson leaves behind a legacy of service in Oklahoma City.

"She was a pioneer, a trailblazer and a pacesetter," Jemison said. "She pursued excellence without excuse … Her life will remain a beacon of inspiration for generations to come."

Johnson to miss opening of recreation center named for her

Horace Stevenson, another of Johnson's Douglass classmates, said Johnson was "a good friend," and that he was sad she wouldn't get to see the opening of the Willa D. Johnson Recreation Center at Douglass Park.

Johnson told The Oklahoman in March that she enjoyed watching the center's construction and was excited for what it would bring to her home community.

She grew up going to the Douglass Community Center, which was recently torn down, and said she remembered attending dance lessons as a child. As an adult, she played cards there with friends.

As a city leader, she advocated for a replacement to the old building, originally built in 1926 as a fairgrounds building.

"It just puts a smile on my face, and makes my heart beat a little bit harder and longer, to know that something that positive in a city this size … would happen because of something I did," Johnson said in March.

City leaders pay tribute to Johnson on social media

Johnson administered Mayor David Holt's oath of office when he was first elected in 2018.

"Where there was a Willa, there was always a way," Holt said in a Twitter tribute. "We will miss you, Willa."

She endorsed the campaign of her County Commissioner successor, Carrie Blumert, who wrote on Facebook Friday that Johnson was a mentor.

"Her heart was in service to her community," Blumert said. "She was a trailblazer for women, and especially Black women, who will continue to look up to her and her leadership."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Willa Johnson, OKC's first Black city councilwoman, dead at 83