Wyndell "Wendy" Clanton Johnson

Wyndell “Wendy” Johnson, 81, of Union City, passed away Friday, August 21, 2020. Wendy was born in Valdosta, Georgia on May 4, 1939. A wild child and a rule-breaker to boot, she preferred climbing trees and rough-housing with her older brother to playing with dolls. She loved her dogs and riding horses. She looked up to her daddy, and spent her early years watching him work and wanting to be like him, picking up a collection of skills and odd knowledge along the way.

After graduating from Valdosta High School in 1957, she took those skills and all that odd knowledge and became a certifiable “jack of all trades.” She spent her years working as a bartender, a sales person, a receptionist, and even an EKG technician for a time. Whatever she did, she was good at it. She could sell hair care products to a bald man. Her customers adored her and became her friends. While she had a dozen stories to tell about every job she ever worked, the highlight of her life was managing Grego’s restaurant in Valdosta. The only job she ever loved more was being a mother and a grandmother.

Wendy had three children and three grandchildren of her own, and she was uniquely proud of each of them. She bragged about little else in her life, but for them she made an exception.

Wendy was a dancer (specifically, a jitterbugger), a storyteller, a jokester, a smart aleck, and a firecracker. She loved to reminisce on her days spent living in Chicago and Nashville, but Valdosta always had her heart. Even in her final days, she still missed tending bar. She still argued about her real age. She still came ready with a wisecrack and a quick-witted joke. And even when her memories began to betray her, she never forgot where she came from or the people that mattered to her most.

Wendy was preceded in death by her father, Loy Clanton, her mother, Maisie Kirkland, her brother, Laverne Clanton, and her sons, Tom and Ted Ringos. She lives on through her loving and devoted daughter, Tesa Johnson Brasher, and her three treasured grandchildren, Ashton, John, and Jackie.

A memorial service will be held for Wendy in the chapel of Carson McLane Funeral Home at 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 27, 2020. The family will receive friends following the service. The family requests that masks be worn at all services and social distancing be maintained. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Georgia Alzheimer’s Association act.alz.org/donate in Wendy’s name. Condolences may be conveyed to the family on the obituary page of www.mclanecares.com Carson McLane Funeral Home