Barbara Johnson
Author
Barbara J. Johnson - the author of DELTA STRENGTH – was born in the southern part of the United States – Yazoo County, Mississippi (mid-1950’s) to Dorothy L. and Wilson J. Washington, Sr. (deceased). The fifth of twelve siblings - her earlier years were spent working on her family-owned farm; raising cotton as a staple product, and other farm comm....
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Barbara J. Johnson - the author of DELTA STRENGTH – was born in the southern part of the United States – Yazoo County, Mississippi (mid-1950’s) to Dorothy L. and Wilson J. Washington, Sr. (deceased). The fifth of twelve siblings - her earlier years were spent working on her family-owned farm; raising cotton as a staple product, and other farm commodities and animals. Following High School (1973), she obtained a diploma (1976) - from a private business college (Draughon’s) in Mississippi – majoring in accounting, psychology, and IBM business machines. After years of re-locating to Louisiana, Tennessee, and then Ohio - she attended and transferred credits from Sinclair Community College to Park University in Missouri and was awarded a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Management and Clinical Psychology (1998). Barbara concluded her education in 2003 - short of graduating from the University-of-Management & Technology (UMT) in Virginia - with a Master’s Degree in Project Management. Additionally, throughout her federal (Civil Service) career (1982 – 2006) – she took required training through several military (DoD) institutes and universities – including the Defense Acquisition University (Virginia), and the Air Force Institute of Technology (Ohio). In 2003, the United States Air Force awarded Barbara an APDP Level-III (federal budgeting, financial management, procurement, and cost-estimating) professional certification. Barbara’s life-time career also included the Yazoo County Summer Youth Program (1971); the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Insurance Corporation (1974 - 1977); the Bank of America Consumer Lenders of Louisiana (1977 - 1980); Term Plan Finance Consumer Lenders, and the Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance Insurance Company – both in Tennessee (1980 – 1981); and the Winter’s Bank in Ohio (1981 – 1982). During a short period, after her federal retirement in 2006 – Barbara was employed as a contractor employee with the United States Special Operations Command in Florida; then moved back to Ohio (2007) to become a municipal government, fiscal officer and HR director. In 1968 – at the age of thirteen - Barbara began composing an imitation of her life with a poem called “Chinaberry Lane” - and concluded with “DELTA STRENGTH” in the fall of 2019. She took a position with another federal contractor (2019), and started working for the United States Army near Washington, D.C. Besides being a Girl Scout of America leader for eight years; fishing, art-illustrating, and writing has always been her hobbies. Barbara is married (1976) to Norman, whom she met in 1973. They have two adult children, seven grandchildren, and six-God grands.