Myrtle Mae Cole

Myrtle Mae Cole, 81, departed this life on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 11 am at Church of the Nations. Interment will follow at the City of Lubbock Cemetery under the direction of Griffin Mortuary. Visitations will be held Friday, October 11, 2024, at Griffin Mortuary from 4 pm to 6 pm. Myrtle Mae Cole was born November 14, 1942, to Jet Cole and Veronie Mayce Cole in Mart, TX at home by a midwife. She was the youngest daughter of 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls.

Mama, Myrtle Cole, attended Blackshear and then transferred to O’Donnell High School from 1958-1963.

Mama, Myrtle, graduated early before graduation in January of 1963-January 21st. Being one of the first people to graduate early from an integrated school in West Texas, because she graduated mid-term and as she was wise enough to recognize at that time and wrote:”I am the first black, latino American or white to have graduated from an integrated school in West Texas.” She wrote this on her graduation certificate which was discovered later in archive records to be an accurate statement. 

These writings are on mama’s historical graduation certificate. She was a professional student who studied philosophy, psychology, politics, and nursing.

She was also a poet who wrote several poems about life, faith, and courage. These poems were written during a time of severe division in the United States and around the world, especially Africa, mama loved Nelson Mandella and Bill Clinton. She wrote a poem called “The Struggle the Plants Revolt.” She sent her poems to Washington to President Bill Clinton.

Mama was later invited to Washington to talk about her poem and insight on Race Relations, after America had left in defeated country and battlefield,

Mama believed in doing right no matter what she was a loyal and advocate for the Democratic Party. She believed in and loved God more than her own life. Her devotion to God helped her in all her struggles through life and to be the most caring and loving mother ever born with an unwavering condition of love for her two children, Ollie Fitzgerald Johnson and Sabrina Johnson. This is her true title: "A True Child of God." 

Myrtle is preceded in death by her parents Jet Cole and Veronie Mays Cole, her husband Ollie Lee Johnson her son Fabian Johnson, brothers Birdett Cole, James Vernon Cole “JV”, Joe W. Cole, and Lonzie Cole, her sisters Maple Lee Cole, and Erma Gene Cole, her nephews Daryl Cole and Charles Don Price, and her niece Patricia Ann Price.

Myrtle leaves behind to cherish her memory, her son Ollie Fitzgerald Johnson, her daughter Sabrina Sharee Johnson (McGriff), Mass, grandsons Brodrick Lamont Johnson, Michael Brooks, and Kemon Davis, her granddaughters Janie Brooks and Michah Simone Brooks, her sisters, Shirley Cleveland and Zelma Williams, her brother Kenneth Cole, her sister-in-law Ida V Cole, her nieces Linda Hunter Davis (Roy), LaChelle Hunter McCormick (Travis), Diane Williams “DeeDee”, Camillie Williams, Kimberly Williams, Stephanie Biel, Kathy Cole, Sharonda Cole, Sheila Cole, Licha Cole, Reesey Cole, Peanut Cole, Laketina Cole, and Natalie Cole, her nephews Michael Williams, Billy Cole, Greg Cole, Barry Cole, Michael Cole, and Kent Cole, and a host of other relatives and friends.