“Louise Johnson’s name will live forever,” Tony Zompa, executive director of the Johnston Senior Center, was saying last Thursday as his voice cracked with emotion. “Today we honor her in a way we think she would enjoy.”
A few seconds later, after Zompa gave people inside the center’s multi-purpose room a chance to wipe tears from their eyes, Assistant Director Millie Santilli made an announcement that met with more tearing eyes as well as applause.
Starting with last Thursday afternoon’s bingo, the center renamed that game in loving memory of Louise Forte Johnson, a long-time member at the center who passed away six weeks ago after what Zompa described as a “wonderful life of 93 and three-quarter years.”
Thus, the center’s Thursday afternoon bingo will be known as the Louise Johnson L Bingo.
Santilli made the special surprise announcement with Johnson’s sister Lucy Brill and daughter Claudia Johnson Corley standing by her side.
“We always looked forward to seeing Louise each Thursday, and her presence is missed,” Santilli said. “And especially by those who shared a table with her each week during bingo.”
Perhaps even more important, as Zompa wanted it known, is that “we would also like to thank you again for your very generous personal donation and the ones received from family and friends in lieu of flowers when Louise passed away. Her name will live with us forever and ever.”
The brief, classy ceremony was both “emotional and exciting” for Johnson’s sister and daughter.
“We were so happy that the senior center wanted to do something for my mother,” Corley said. “My mother loved coming here and enjoyed special friendships. This was special.”
It also marked the second time that Johnson’s family made a special contribution to the center. Back when her late husband Clyde “Curly” Johnson passed away, the family had donations go to the facility.
Few bingo players, if any, knew that Johnson – who was born and raised on Providence’s Federal Hill – was a pioneer of sorts.
“My mother was the tax receiver of the village of Fredonia, N.Y.,” Corley said. “She was the first woman in that position and it was a big deal back then. And she didn’t encounter any glass feelings. Back then, women had glass feelings ... at that time her profession was a man’s world, but not to my dear mother.”
Johnson’s inner strength always seemed to surface during her working years.
“She was smart and hard working,” Corley said of her late mother. “And that was proof enough for her employers.”
Thus, the center added yet another chapter to its tradition rich and illustrious history with the naming of the Louise Johnson L Bingo.
But just how does it work?
“In order to win a bingo player must have the winning numbers in the shape of an ‘L’ on his or her card,” explained Debbie Ross, the center’s public relations coordinator, after what Corley called “a very sweet ceremony to honor my mother.”
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