MANSFIELD — Lined around the entrance to the library of Malabar Intermediate School are notes written to school librarian Maxine Johnson.
She died last month at the age of 67, and the school will name the library in her honor on Feb. 21.
“Many mornings, the library would be filled with children who had issues with being in the gym,” said Sandy Overholt, a fourth grade science and math teacher at the middle school, but more importantly, Johnson’s friend. “They would come in here, and she would talk with them very kindly about what was going on. She would remind them there were lots of different ways of solving problems.”
Johnson died Wednesday, Jan. 4, of pancreatic cancer. She leaves behind many students and faculty who loved her. Her death was sudden to those who worked with her.
School principal, Andrea Moyer said she noticed when Johnson looked ill, and asked her to visit a doctor.
“She didn’t want to go,” Moyer said. “She said she had to take care of ‘her kids.’ She went in the hospital right before our Christmas break, and she never came out.”
Johnson was hired in 1984 as a library media aide at Brinkerhoff. In 2001 she became a library media paraprofessional at Brinkerhoff Intermediate.
In 2010, she took her final appointment as a library media paraprofessional at Malabar Intermediate.
“She was very kind, a very gentle soul,” Overholt added.
Moyer said Johnson was a great team player.
“She was the type of person who would do whatever you would ask her to do,” she said. “Sometimes I would have to pull her out of library duty to fill another position for a day. If the secretary was out, I would ask her to cover the phones. Never once would I hear her complain. She was very flexible and easy-going.”
Johnson worked for the district for 32 years, and had worked at the intermediate school’s library for the most past six.
“When you have an employee in a position for 32 years and have a staff at a building where she worked who cared about her as much as they did, you feel compelled to honor her memory by dedicating the library in her name,” Superintendent Brian Garverick said.
The name change was requested by the middle school staff, Moyer said.
“It was brought up, and as soon as it was out there, pretty much everyone agreed,” she said.
Garverick said he will be recommending the name change at the school board meeting on Feb. 21, and the board will vote.
“They understand the impact she had on the school,” he said.
And so, presumably, her legacy will continue.
The Friday after she passed, Overholt said, every staff member and many students wore purple in honor of Johnson. Purple, she added, is the color representative of pancreatic cancer.
“I’ve got a little guy,” Overholt said describing how she was a gift to students and faculty. “And he would come in here (the library) angry. Maxine had a knack for picking up on those kids who needed attention. She would talk to the children. By the time we got ready for him to come into the classroom, he would be completely in control.
“He would be ready to start his day. Sometimes he just needed an extra person to show they cared, and Maxine was great at that.”
The shrine for Johnson surrounding the double doors to the library is an example of how much she meant to the students and vice versa.
“We talked a lot about how Mrs. Johnson would tell us jokes. She would help us pick out good books,” Overholt said.
“One of my little girls said, ‘I would ask her for a book and she would know exactly where it was at.”
One student said, “I was looking for a book and Mrs. Johnson said, ‘I have the perfect book for you.’”
The book was called ‘Trouble’ Overholt said. She recalled the student told her Johnson laughed while handing the student the book saying, “This is for you, little troublemaker.”
“She just knew the kids, and knew what the students wanted,” she added.
