Funeral held for 6-year-old crash victim

Even at 6 years old, Morgan Johnson ruled.

“The Princess,” as her family called her, helped her parents around the house and made them remember what was important.

Enlarge this image

Kent D. Johnson / kdjohnson@ajc.com

Mourners enter Fellowship of Faith Church International in East Point on Monday for Morgan Johnson’s funeral.

RELATED:
• Photos: Morgan Johnson's funeral
• Photos: BMW driver arrested
• Video: Judge scolds suspect for running
• Timeline: From crash to indictment
• Remarks on police report (pdf)
• Daughter, mom charged
• Survivor recalls tragic crash
• Service held for S. Fulton family killed
• Woman killed in crash had 'everything going right'
• BMW sought in Camp Creek crash

She kept her teachers organized, her classmates well-behaved and her friends laughing.

On Monday, friends laid a pink tiara on Morgan’s chest moments before her casket was closed.

She will continue to rule in a better place, they said.

Hundreds of family members, classmates, teachers and friends said goodbye to the first grader Monday afternoon at Fellowship of Faith Church International in East Point. She was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Atlanta.

“We could depend on her to be obedient, but her classmates would depend on her not to be a tattletale,” kindergarten teacher Laneita Covington said.

Morgan was one of five people killed April 12 in a hit and run crash on Camp Creek Parkway.

On Monday, paramedics wheeled her mother, Tracie Johnson, into the church on a hospital gurney so she could be there for the service. Johnson has been at Grady Memorial Hospital since the crash.

Morgan’s classmates at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy have spent the past two weeks making cards, writing letters and praying for their friend and her mom. She is the first death the students have faced at the school, kindergarten teacher Faberge Fullman said.

“We’re honest with the students with everything,” she said. “Morgan was their friend and they wanted to express their thoughts.”

Fullman presented the cards and letters to Morgan’s parents on Monday. But for some students, that wasn’t enough.

Six-year-olds Kyna Cheney and Kia Francis, who attended the service, said they wanted to see their friend one more time so they could remember all the fun they had playing kickball and dancing on the playground.

“We loved each other and we were best friends,” Kyna wrote in a card to Morgan.

First grade teacher Roshonda Kimbrough has taught dozens of students, but Morgan was the only one she gave a pet name - Chocolate Chip, she said.

“She organized me. She was so organized, it spilled over,” Kimbrough said through tears. “She was a giver.”

That’s why her loved ones wanted to give her one last thing.

“My daughter Christina was her best friend. She told me to make sure her best friend had her tiara,” Carolyn Waller said after laying the tiara. “She can always be princess.”