Tree Grows for Johnnie

Detroit Free Press, May 27, 1962

I don't know if the Imagine Theater, located at 33455 Warren Road in
Westland, occupies the former Tonquish Elementary School building and
property or if the clump of birch trees that were planted there in 1962
still remain but if so the trees have a bittersweet origin.

John
"Johnnie" Paxton, a WWII Marine and North Carolina transplant, was the
custodian, and sometimes bus driver for the sports teams at the school.
During a road game at Northville, in which he was the driver and the ever-enthusiastic fan, Paxton died of a heart attack.

Beloved by the children they began to bring pennies to school to buy
something to remember Johnnie. They considered books as a remembrance
but a tree seemed more enduring. So with the help of principal Patrick
Hamil they planted the birch near the school.

"Be the kind of generous, understanding person Johnnie Paxton was." said Hamill as some children wiped away tears.

A boy played the trumpet as the last shovels of dirt were tossed on a monument well-lain in honor of a decent man.

He is buried in Hamburg Cemetery in Glenville, North Carolina.

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The Nankin Township Historical Society

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