Joel E. "Bubba" Johnson Jr.

Joel E. "Bubba" Johnson Jr. died Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. Funeral services will be Saturday at Geneva Presbyterian Church on Commerce Street at 2 p.m. with the Rev. David Ashton officiating. Burial will follow in Geneva City Cemetery . Visitation will be today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Pittman Funeral Home in Geneva. Friends desiring may make memorial contributions to the Downtown Park Maintenance Fund, c/o The Citizens Bank, P.O . Box 190, Geneva, AL 36340. A native of Geneva, Joel attended Geneva public schools and completed high school at Sewanee Military Academy in Sewanee, Tenn., where he was a commissioned cadet officer and a member of the Honor Council. He received a degree in textile engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He subsequently returned to Geneva to work in the family textile mill where he also served in the Alabama Air National Guard and was a Paul Harris Fellow of the Geneva Rotary Club. Joel later resided in Dothan, where he was the owner of a marine dealership, and in Panama City, Fla., where he was a deacon of the First Presbyterian Church. At the present time, Joel was an Elder of the Geneva Presbyterian Church, and the past president and current board member of the Geneva County Treasure Forest Association. Joel took a special interest in civic beautification, and was instrumental in the establishment of the downtown park across from The Citizens Bank of Geneva where he was president and chairman of the board. He was predeceased by his parents, Joel and Thelma Johnson of Geneva; his sister, Mary Elyse Mattison of Houston; and his nephew Bill Mattison, also of Houston. He is survived by his wife Nell of Geneva and their daughter, Leslie Laird of Montgomery; brother-in-law, William E. Mattison of Alexandria, Va.; niece, Mary Mattison and her son, Trey of Houston; niece, Lysa Farrah and her husband Kenneth, and their children Mary Elyse and Mattison, of El Paso, Texas; niece, Lynne Till and her husband Timothy of Houston; cousins from the Harold Johnson family of Montgomery, the David and Dorothy Ann Leck family of Lakewood, Colo., the Jimmy and Mike Sollie families of Ozark, and the Gerry Arnold family of Richmond, Va. Active pallbearers will be Bobby Light, Bud Dowdy, Phillip Carter, Jerome Parrish and John Hughes of Geneva, Charles Hudson and Dr. Glenn Padgett of Marianna, Fla., and Dr. John Savage of Ebro, Fla. Honorary pallbearers will be Martha Helms, Hugh Herring, John Ward, and Dr. Buddy Mitchum of Geneva, Dr. George Goodreau and Richard Locher of Panama City, Dr. Walter Gay Pittman of Birmingham, J.M. Turner of Hartford, and employees of The Citizens Bank. Pittman Funeral Home in Geneva, (334) 684-2600, is in charge of arrangements.