Dorothy Harmon Johnson

     Dorothy Palteria Harmon was born on March 9, 1926, to the union of Clifford Jenkins and Zeater Harmon in Newark, New Jersey. She passed away peacefully on June 26, 2024. Dorothy’s mother died when she was a child and she moved to the home of her grandfather John Harmon near Tanner Creek, Virginia.

     Upon high school graduation in Norfolk Virginia, Dorothy enrolled in a nursing school in New York City where she met and married Veltry Herman Johnson Sr.

     In 1946 the couple relocated to Seattle, Washington and to this union Veltry Herman Johnson Jr. and Csinthea Adele Johnson were born. Her nursing training was not honored in the state of Washington. Undeterred she enrolled in Seattle University, obtained a Master of Science in Nursing and was hired as night supervisor of nursing. Following a four-decade nursing and healthcare career she retired.

     She remained an active member of the Black Nurse’s association, empowering others aspiring to become medical professionals.

     Shortly after moving to Seattle Ms. Johnson joined First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church and thus began an active lifelong tenure of service in all aspects of church outreach.

        She was integral to the development of a church health ministry and was often observed working as a volunteer in the church office after an all-night hospital shift.

        She immersed the family in church activity. Attendance in Sunday School, children’s choir and the altar boy’s guild were mandatory. She enrolled in church Christian education programs and became a Sunday School teacher and later became supervisor of youth programs.

       Her lifetime membership in the FAME Missionary Society served to identify and train several generations of church leadership.

      Upon election to the was later recruited to join the FAME Missionary Society. Dorothy was faithful and became a life member. Dorothy was elected to the church board- the pastor’s cabinet she simultaneously became a part of the Connectional Lay Organization, training others to become effective leaders throughout the expansive AME system.

       Dorothy was appointed to the original board of the AME church’s 5th District Economic Development Fund, a body charged with the purchase, development, renovation and maintenance of numerous church properties in the western United States.

      For over 50 years Ms.  Johnson has been a delegate to the general AME Church Quadrennial conferences, participating in the adoption of church doctrine, and amendments to church Discipline. In honor of her service, she was names Steward Emeritus and a rose bush was planted in her name on the property of her home church.

      Dorothy is survived by her son Veltry Herman Johnson, daughter Csinthea Adele Davis, (Reverend Donald Davis) and granddaughter Venetta Ikya Johnson and a host of family and friends.

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