Lillie Johnson, a pioneering nurse, educator, public well being chief, and founding father of the Sickle Cell Affiliation of Ontario, died on August 10 on the age of 103.
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Born on March 16, 1922, in St Ann, Jamaica, to 2 trainer dad and mom, Johnson was certainly one of 10 youngsters. After graduating from Wolmer’s Excessive Faculty, she attended Shortwood Lecturers’ School and taught at varied faculties within the Nineteen Forties earlier than pursuing her dream of turning into a nurse.
In 1951, she left Jamaica for Edinburgh, Scotland, to review nursing, finishing her coaching in 1954. She later earned her midwifery qualification in England and labored as a domiciliary nurse and midwife in Oxfordshire from 1955 to 1957. Returning to Jamaica, she served as a employees nurse on the College School of the West Indies, then moved to New Jersey to work at Beth Israel Hospital.
Johnson migrated to Canada in 1960, working first with the Canadian Crimson Cross and later at St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Kids, and as a group well being nurse with the Victoria Order of Nurses and the York County Regional Well being Unit. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of Toronto in 1969 whereas working full-time.
Her profession included serving as a grasp trainer in Humber School’s well being sciences division, a nursing advisor with Ontario’s Ministry of Well being, and the primary Black director of public well being for the Leeds-Grenville and Lanark District in japanese Ontario. After retiring, she labored with CUSO Worldwide in Jamaica as a group well being nurse.
In 1981, Johnson based the Sickle Cell Affiliation of Ontario after taking a genetics course that launched her to sickle cell anemia. For 4 many years, she championed consciousness and coverage adjustments, together with efficiently lobbying for the inclusion of sickle cell illness in Ontario’s new child screening program.
Her service earned her quite a few awards, together with recognition from the Jamaican Canadian Affiliation, the Coalition of Black Commerce Unionists, the African Canadian Achievement Award, the Metropolis of Toronto, and the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. She carried the torch for the 2015 Pan-Am Video games and received Ontario’s highest honor, the Order of Ontario, in 2011. On November 14, 2023, she was appointed to the Order of Canada, and invested at a ceremony in February 2024 at her Scarborough residence.
Johnson was additionally a founding member of the Jamaican Canadian Affiliation in 1962.
Visitation shall be held Tuesday, August 19, from 4 p.m. to eight p.m. at Highland Funeral House – Markham Chapel, 10 Cachet Woods Court docket, Markham, Ontario. The funeral will happen on August 20 on the similar location, adopted by interment at Highland Hills Memorial Gardens in Gormley, Ontario, and a reception on the funeral house.
