When it came to feeding and clothing the needy, Katy Johnson Warner set an example that inspired others.
Known as a missionary with a Bible and a baking pan, Warner was admired as much for her generosity as she was for her culinary skills and entrepreneurial spirit.
In addition to helping her church provide food and clothing for sick, bereaved and homeless families, Warner ministered herself to countless people in need.
She and her husband delivered meals and outerwear to people living under bridges. She fed anyone who walked into her restaurant wanting something to eat but unable to pay.
Even after failing health left her in a wheelchair, she still baked desserts and roasts for her church’s outreach ministry and continued to donate food, cash and clothing to sick and bereaved families.
“Although she did a tremendous amount for her church, she did more personally to help people,” said friend Jean Boney, former outreach ministry coordinator at Zion Hill Baptist Church, where Warner had been a member since 1973.
“It was a full-time ministry for her because of her love for God and her love for people,” Boney said. “She was blessed with material things because she never held back in giving to others. In fact, she would give her last. She was one God-sent, phenomenal woman. And she was truly obedient to God until the very end.”
Warner of Atlanta died Oct. 8 of complications from a massive stroke. She was 78. Her funeral was Oct. 15 at Zion Hill Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta.
An Atlanta native and “Grady baby,” Warner was born on Sept. 20, 1937, the fourth of six children. As a child, she always enjoyed helping her mother in the kitchen.
After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School, she attended Morris Brown College, Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Real Estate.
She started her career with the Centers for Disease Control, where she became a supervisor in the printing department. Yet cooking remained a passion.
After her day job, she donned her apron and prepared dinner plates to sell to construction workers in her Vine City community. That led to a catering business for weddings, reunions and other events, including office parties and functions at the CDC.
In 1969, she and her husband, Leon “Rookie” Warner, opened Rookie’s Lounge and the Snack Shack Ice Cream Parlor, which they operated for several years in a neighborhood near Vine City once known as the city’s Fifth Ward. The area later was razed to make way for construction of the Georgia World Congress Center.
Rookie’s Lounge became a popular neighborhood watering hole, frequented by locals who gathered to eat, drink and dance to tunes on the jukebox.
“That was when the ’hood was known as the neighborhood because people were neighborly back then and looked out for each other,” said longtime family friend Willie Watkins of Atlanta. “If I could describe Kate, she was an angel always doing things for people. Kate’s good cooking brought people together. She put love in her cooking.”
After 25 years with the CDC, she retired and opened the Cascade Grill in southwest Atlanta.
During its nearly 15-year run, the Grill became popular with patrons who loved her home cooking and hospitality. Fried fish, hot dogs and hot-link splits were some of her specialties.
“If someone came in and they could not pay, she would give them the meal for free,” said her daughter Monica Johnson of Atlanta. “She always said that you never know when Jesus is coming through that door. It was not about the money, but giving, feeding and making people happy. Her heart was in the right place.”
Warner also started KPW Transport Services to provide rides to people in need of kidney dialysis treatment.
In 1992, the Atlanta Peach chapter of the American Business Women’s Association named her Woman of the Year.
Her entrepreneurship inspired family members to start their own businesses in catering and transportation. And she supported their ventures, donating all her catering equipment to some of her nieces who followed in her footsteps, her daughter said.
“She was a missionary servant to the community,” said her goddaughter LaJauna Grier of Atlanta. “She was my mentor. ‘Do as much as you can for as many people as you can, while you can,’ she would say.”
In addition to her daughter and husband, Warner is survived by her brother Eural Johnson of Detroit, her sister Virginia Lyles of Columbia, S.C., and one grandson.
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