Inez Selden Johnson, was born in Kinsale on Seldons Cove (in Kinsale Creek, the central branch of the Yeocomico) on Sept. 7, 1916, daughter of Malinda Elizabeth Russ Selden and Hiram Opey Selden. She died quietly in her sleep at almost 100 years of age on May 23, 2016 at Riverside Hospital.

Inez was an example of grace, insight, strength and kindness, whose writing and love for her community will be greatly missed, for she assisted so many to grow to their fullest potential.

After her mother died in May 1923, Inez and her brother Emmett and sister Rosa May were sent to Washington, D.C. where they lived with their father’s sister, and then with their father and stepmother Helen B. Lacey. She graduated from Dunbar High School, then from Miner Teachers School, which became the University of the District of Columbia. She earned her MA at Howard University. She taught math and science in Maryland, during her husband’s various postings with the U.S. Army and in Westmoreland County.

Inez and Captain Augustus Rudolph Johnson were married in 1953. She returned here to live here in 1962 and was joined by her husband when he retired the next year. They served on many boards throughout the community and ran Coves Head Gardens Greenhouse for 17 years. From Jan. 1976-December 1983 he was the county’s first African-American Supervisor.

As many of her forebears had been slaves, Inez focused on African-Americans’ emergence into freedom. Her people’s struggles and strengths offered her a springboard to brilliance and she paid that forward throughout the community. As she worked, lifelong, to detail Black history, she never, ever forgot how hard their work had been during slavery times and afterwards, through the Great Depression. Nor did she forget the warmth and love that was the other side of life for their close-knit families.

Inez wrote the Black History section and helped compile the Black Churches histories for the Westmoreland County History book. Editor Walter Norris, whose great-grandfather and Inez’s grandfather were friends after the Civil War, had high praise for her research and writing, including that on early slave emancipations by Robert “Councillor” Carter and others.
She was a Trustee Emeritus at Potomac Baptist, where she was a trusted advisor for John Tate, Deacons Board Chair. She promoted education and provided school supplies at the beginning of each school year to all the church’s children. Inez served on the Westmoreland County Electoral Board for several decades. Registrar Kris Hicks said her dignity quiet humor, and knowledge of election law and community were vital to smooth operation of elections.

She wrote a History of Black Watermen for the Winter 2003 Kinsale Foundation Waterways, and also provided witty, vivid portraits of bygone days in the Westmoreland News, on topics ranging from church reunions to marriage to Santa Claus and balking the revenuers, as well as domestic and gardening tips. Editor Lynn Norris always looked forward to a new piece from Inez. One of the funniest of the Westmoreland News articles was entitled S-n-a-a-a-k-e and included a memorable paragraph in defense of the oft-maligned and generally feared reptile. “Now a snake doesn’t uncoil himself in the morning and think, ‘I’m going to bite a man.’ Au contraire, the reptilian neighbor intends to make every effort to avoid that two-legged creature with the lawnmower, the automobile or the trimmer. He (or she) plans to swallow a few fat frogs, unearth some plump, tasty grubs, destroy a field mouse nest or two, if at all possible, and then find a bird nest he can climb to and enjoy a few eggs for dessert. All the while keeping himself well concealed.”

Predeceased by her sister and brother and by niece Marilyn Elizabeth Selden, Inez is survived by her nephews Warner Louis Williams and nephew Michael Opey Selden, and niece Arlette Emily Williams; great-nephews Michael Wilson and Steven Wilson and great-niece Corrine Selden; and beloved goddaughter Audrey B. Ball.

Her funeral will be held at Potomac Baptist Church on Friday, May 27, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. with the family receiving friends one hour prior to the service. A reception will follow in the church Social Hall.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Potomac Baptist Church, 6099 Nomini Hall Road, Hague, Virginia, 22469.

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