Featured photo: Yvonne Johnson (Photo: City of Greensboro)

Yvonne Johnson, Greensboro’s first person of color and second woman to hold the office of mayor, died on Wednesday morning at 82. No details of the cause of death were shared in the city’s press release. According to the release, Johnson was surrounded by her family when she passed.

In addition to serving as mayor from 2007-09, Johnson, a Democrat, was a councilmember from 1993-2007. 

When inaugurated in 2007, she said her focus would be on public safety and bringing new jobs and businesses to the city.

She lost her seat to Republican Bill Knight in 2009, but reclaimed a place on council in 2011 with an at-large seat which she has held ever since. Johnson was most recently re-elected to her seat and role as Mayor Pro Tempore in 2022, with her term set to expire in 2025. Johnson was married to Walter Johnson, an attorney, with whom she raised four children.

“It is an understatement to say that Yvonne was a pillar of this community,” Mayor Nancy Vaughan said.

Johnson attended the most recent city council meeting on Nov. 19, but was absent on Tuesday evening.

“Mayor Pro Tem is under the weather this evening so we’ll keep her and her family in our prayers,” Vaughan said last night before holding a moment of silence.

“Early on, Mom didn’t seek out to be in politics,” Johnson’s daughter Lisa Johnson Tonkins said in the city’s release. “It was a local reverend who saw her capacity to lead and serve and convinced her to follow what would be her passion.”

Tonkins added that their family is “immensely proud” of her service.

“Her mantra was that service is the rent you pay for your time on earth,” Tonkins said. “Mom’s rent has been paid up.”

Johnson was an alumnus of Dudley High School, Bennett College and North Carolina A&T State University. She served as the executive director of One Step Further, a local nonprofit organization that provides mediation and alternative court programs for the city’s youth, before stepping down from that role in May. She also served on the board of directors for the Malachi House and was the first president of the Women’s Resource Center.

The Greensboro Economic Development Alliance awarded her with the Stanley Frank Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2010.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Watch footage of Johnson’s 2009 inauguration from WFMY’s video vault here.

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