Walter B. Johnson, passed away on September 16, 2011 at age 84.  Walter was born on May 3, 1927 in Boyds Creek now Seymour, Tennessee.  He attended Young High School, until in 1944 as a junior he thought he would miss all the action, and quit to join the navy.  Three days after his 17th birthday on May 6, 1944, he enlisted in the US Navy seeing action in the Pacific.  When the war ended in August 1945, his ship the USS LCI (L) 195 was being fitted with rocket launchers in preparation for the invasion of Japan.  After the war his ship went to Okinawa, Japan and other Pacific locations including the Yangtze River in China.  He was discharged on July 4, 1946, and then in the fall, along with many other veterans returned to complete high school graduating from Harrison Chilhowee Baptist Academy in the Spring of 1947. In the fall of that year he enrolled at the University of Tennessee from 1947 remaining a student there at least part time through 1951 and was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.  While attending UT part time, in 1948, he traveled with his good friend Carl Cook to Cleveland, Ohio and joined the Merchant Marines, serving on the Great Lakes until 1955, and achieved the rank of Third Mate. In 1955 he graduated from Middle Tennessee State College, but with a growing family, decided to resign his career in the Merchant Marine and went to work for State Farm Insurance Company in Murfreesboro from 1956 until 1961.  He then worked as a Claims Adjuster for State Farm Insurance in London, Kentucky from 1961 until 1962. While working for State Farm he attended the YMCA (now Nashville School of Law) Law School. He graduated in 1960, and became a member of the Bar of the State of Tennessee in 1962.  He began private practice in Knoxville in May 1962 and practiced there until his retirement in December of 2004.