Monroe Johns was born 19 May 1924, the sixth child of Walter Joseph Johns and Aletha Quick. Monroe had a difficult life, he was born mentally handicapped, yet he lived and survived until age 75.
Three years after his birth, his mother Aletha (Quick) Johns passed away on 22 April 1927 from lobar pneumonia and Brights disease.
His father, Walter, then married Blanche Scott who also passed away shortly after her marriage to Walter on 10 August 1927 in Bennetttsville, South Carolina. After the death of Blanche Scott, Walter married Ellen Grooms on 22 August 1833.
You can see that by age 6, young Monroe had 3 Mama’s in his life. An article in The Cheraw Chronicle, September 23, 1976, Page 2B, Right side of page, tells the story of Monroe Johns, aka “Walking John.”
Walking John Stirs Curiosity
Have you seen Walking John lately?
Who is Walking John and what does he look like?
He is about five feet, 10 inches tall, clean shaven and has searching eyes. His low extremities are somewhat bow and his walk is how my grandmother used to describe as loping and digging.
He usually wears a variety of caps. One day the cap maybe red, white and blue, the other days he may be seen with a striped and checkered cap pulled tightly on his head. Even the hottest days, he either wears a coat or a kind of jacket. Sometimes his trousers are blue and on other days he may wear a kind of brown ones like the soldiers wore in World War One.
People have seen him walking from Bennettsville to Chesterfield.
One person met him coming from just out of Bennettsville and in about an hour's time he was passing, through Fisher's Hill.
Where he was coming from and where he was going to may be summed up as his personal business. Some, however, said that he had relatives on both ends of his almost daily journey. People are curious and they (we) must remember that curiosity killed the cat.
Goldie Locks likes to tease him about walking to Mississippi, but he denied it and claimed it was his brother.
I do not know whether motorists offer him a ride or not, but he is always seen walking. His first stop is at Van's Place on Second Street. He buys a 10-cent bag of boiled peanuts. If he does not have the money, Goldie Locks lets him have it on credit until the next day. He is honest and pays the next day or the next time he passes. He leaves walking with the bag in one hand and another bag in the other hand. He begins immediately to eat with an art of shelling the hulls and eating at the same time. Other people whom I have known eat most of the hulls and the boiled peanuts together.
Walking John's next step may be at Kimrey's Exxon Station where he may buy a soft drink. If he is hungry, he may buy a bottle of milk and some cookies at IGA and have his lunch. After his lunch, he proceeds on his walking journey towards Chesterfield.
People are usually attracted by a strange pattern of another person. They wonder what the person is thinking about and the person, no doubt, wonders about your thoughts if he observes you watching him in a strange way. We, ourselves, are the odd ones and have our own peculiar behavior patterns. The ape-like people in the television series of the "Planet of the Apes" think human beings should be caged and they are the superior ones - they may be right.
For a long time, I wondered what Walking John's name was. I asked him what was his name and he told me. May he continue to walk and enjoy good health and come from and go to where he wants to go --- God bless him.
[Henry L. Marshall, The Cheraw Chronicle, Thursday, September 23, 1976, Page 2B, Right side of page].
Walking John was my 1st cousin once removed. Monroe lived a long simple life dying at 75 years of age on 10 February 2000.
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1. [Henry L. Marshall, "Walking John Stirs Curiosity," The Cheraw Chronicle, September 23, 1976, Page 2B, Right side of page, . He died 10 February 2000.
2. Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 4 May 2014); Memorial page for Monroe JOHNS; (19 May 1924–10 February 2000); Find a Grave memorial # 64946776, Citing Bethesda United Methodist Church Cemetery; Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, USA
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