Lillie Johnson, a pioneering nurse, educator, public health leader, and founder of the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario, died on August 10 at the age of 103.
Born on March 16, 1922, in St Ann, Jamaica, to two teacher parents, Johnson was one of 10 children. After graduating from Wolmer’s High School, she attended Shortwood Teachers’ College and taught at various schools in the 1940s before pursuing her dream of becoming a nurse.
In 1951, she left Jamaica for Edinburgh, Scotland, to study nursing, completing her training in 1954. She later earned her midwifery qualification in England and worked as a domiciliary nurse and midwife in Oxfordshire from 1955 to 1957. Returning to Jamaica, she served as a staff nurse at the University College of the West Indies, then moved to New Jersey to work at Beth Israel Hospital.
Johnson migrated to Canada in 1960, working first with the Canadian Red Cross and later at St. Joseph’s Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, and as a community health nurse with the Victoria Order of Nurses and the York County Regional Health Unit. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto in 1969 while working full-time.
Her career included serving as a master teacher in Humber College’s health sciences division, a nursing consultant with Ontario’s Ministry of Health, and the first Black director of public health for the Leeds-Grenville and Lanark District in eastern Ontario. After retiring, she worked with CUSO International in Jamaica as a community health nurse.
In 1981, Johnson founded the Sickle Cell Association of Ontario after taking a genetics course that introduced her to sickle cell anemia. For four decades, she championed awareness and policy changes, including successfully lobbying for the inclusion of sickle cell disease in Ontario’s newborn screening program.
Her service earned her numerous awards, including recognition from the Jamaican Canadian Association, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the African Canadian Achievement Award, the City of Toronto, and the Bloomberg School of Nursing. She carried the torch for the 2015 Pan-Am Games and received Ontario’s highest honor, the Order of Ontario, in 2011. On November 14, 2023, she was appointed to the Order of Canada, and invested at a ceremony in February 2024 at her Scarborough residence.
Johnson was also a founding member of the Jamaican Canadian Association in 1962.
Visitation will be held Tuesday, August 19, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Highland Funeral Home – Markham Chapel, 10 Cachet Woods Court, Markham, Ontario. The funeral will take place on August 20 at the same location, followed by interment at Highland Hills Memorial Gardens in Gormley, Ontario, and a reception at the funeral home.
