Pecola Johnson was in search of a fun, spirited way to serve the community.
She found it with the East Cobb YMCA Kickers — a group of women 60 and older who don costumes and perform medleys of songs from the 1950s and 1960s.
For Mrs. Johnson, its members have been like family for a dozen years. And vice versa, said Betty Brockington of Acworth, a friend for 10 years. She and Mrs. Johnson rode together to two-hour practices and 40-plus yearly performances across Cobb County. Afterward, they’d often wind up sitting in Mrs. Brockington’s kitchen nook, talking hours on end.
“The Kickers are very supportive of each other in good times and bad times,” she said. “I’m 80 and the oldest lady is 83. We consider it a ministry and Pecola enjoyed that. She is — I say ‘is’ because she is in our hearts — a beautiful person and a wonderful spirit.”
Dozens of Kickers plan to attend the funeral for Pecola Jean Howell Johnson, 74. She died Sunday from complications of Alzheimer’s disease at Tranquility Hospice in Austell.
The funeral will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Mount Paran North Church of God in Marietta. H.M. Patterson & Son of Marietta is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Johnson was born in Plant City, Fla., a preacher’s child whose Italian first name was selected from a book. She spent early years as a wife and mother in Orlando and Tampa. She moved to Marietta in the late 1970s to be near her parents and siblings.
Here, she worked as an office manager for BMA Insurance Co., and immersed herself in volunteer work at Mount Paran North Church of God and a Marietta pregnancy center.
And of course there was the YMCA Kickers, based out of the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA. She joined the senior ladies dance troupe in 1998. She sang and danced until her illness became too debilitating.
With her personality, performing fit perfectly, said her son, Mike Hayes of Marietta.
“She was very outgoing and very energetic,” he said, “so it gave her an outlet to serve the community in a unique way. Either you have that gift or you don’t. These ladies bonded together; 25 of them will probably be at the mom’s funeral.”
Judy Guard of Woodstock, the troupe director, plans to eulogize a “trooper” at Thursday’s funeral.
“She danced way past the time most people would have tried to,” Mrs. Guard said. “Any song she learned a long time ago, she remembered well. Anything new, it was difficult for her to retain it, but she was really a trooper.”
The East Cobb YMCA Kickers will be easy to spot at the funeral.
“We’ll be in black and silver vests,” Mrs. Brockington said.
Additional survivors include her husband, Phillip E. Johnson of Marietta; another son, Chuck Hayes of Roswell; two brothers, Charles Howell of Albany and Jerry Howell of Woodstock; a sister, Carmelita Walker of Smyrna; and two grandsons.
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