Georgia Joan Johnson
2 June 1927 – 15 July 2014
(This story was recorded in the booklet "Living History Interviews" put out by Kanab High School; volume 1, 1992)

Georgia Joan Smith, also know as Jo, was born on June 2, 1927 in Flagstaff, Arizona, to the parents of Fred Johnson and Georgia Ott, sometimes called Tiny. Fred, Jo's father, was a park ranger at the South Rim and Grand Canyon. Her father passed away before she was two years old. Jo's mother remarried to Dell Azerette. He was a cowboy, he could say he was an all-around handyman.

Jo started school in the first grade. She went to a reform school for the first little while of her school days. The desks at school were similar to the ones we have now. They had a pencil tray at the top center of the desk and an ink well in the top left corner. Jo enjoyed going to school. She played basketball, although she didn't really like it. She played the clarinet and the saxophone in the school band, danced for the drill team. Jo was a busy girl in school and still managed to get good grades.
Jo Smith grew up in Kanab, Utah. She and her family lived with Jo's grandmother. The things Jo remembers most about her grandmother's home was the huge mulberry trees in the ditch banks. Jo's home was made of adobe brick and heated from fireplaces. This house she was living in is over one-hundred years old, and still stands today. Jo's grandma always had a garden. They raised lots of corn, lots of fruit trees and much more. They didn't have electricity until the 1930's. Before then, they had to uses kerosene lamps.
Jo didn't have many chores as a child. She was the only kid so she was kind of spoiled. Although sometimes she would help clean the house by sweeping. Jo and her family would travel quite often. they had an old Studebaker which they called the Hoopy Wagon. She would travel to Flagstaff to watch the Pow-Wow on the 4th of July. They would go to California, rent a beach house and stay for a few days. then on to Texas to visit her family. Jo's family owned a café. In this café, she met the man she was to marry. When Jo was 19 she was married to Thayne Smith. They have four children, Michele, Kurtis, Denise, and Eric.
Jo enjoys many things such as reading, writing stories and some poems, going on picnics, traveling, and people.
​ The thing Jo enjoys most is being with her children and life.