The last seen date of 1956 seems to be wrong. I attach a newspaper story from 1955 which gives his last seen date as 1950 (plus a lot more information about his family). He was born 7 October 1915 in Texas, and married Nancy Virginia Johnson before WW2. They had 2 children (one, Wilburn, died in 1918) and were recently divorced when he went missing.
An obit for John Johnson, Othel’s father shows that he was father of Othel (Billy) Johnson. It further states that his parents and wife preceded him in death with no mention of his son, Othel, as being deceased.
Source: Newspapers.com The Courier-Gazette Sun, Feb 12, 1967 ·Page 12
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I agree with alb1on that Othel went missing in 1950, several months after his divorce and not 1956. The missing date should be changed to 1950.
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The 1956 obit of Othel’s mother, Margaret Frances Johnson lists Othel as surviving her.
Sources: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43690771/margaret-frances-johnson
and her obit in the
Albuquerque Journal Fri, Jul 27, 1956
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The obit for Othel’s son, Wilbur (one of two children) lists only his mother as preceding him in death.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192427395/wilburn-gene-johnson
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An interesting side note: NAMUS lists Othel as missing from tribal land with a primary residence on tribal land.
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/32941
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The Albuquerque Tribune Fri, Aug 17, 1973, Page 1, shows a photo of a Native American family (Navajo), Mrs. Billy Johnson and two of her children, Darlene and Terry. The caption states “Grief over the death of husband and father is shown in the faces of Mrs. Billy Johnson and two of her children, Darlene and Terry. Mrs. Johnson said her husband died of lung cancer as a result of 20 years of work in a uranium mine. She has five children." (The large two page article discusses lung cancer from uranium among the Navajo miners in Arizona) Article goes on to state "Mrs. Mary Louis Johnson lost her husband, Billy Johnson, May 21, 1972...Both Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. John have small flocks of sheep. They have far to go for water and for wood to cook."
That would be 20 years back to 1953, three years after he was last seen.
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The above obit for John Johnson, Othel’s father, shows that he was father of Othel
(Billy) Johnson. He was nicknamed Billy.
Source: Newspapers.com The Courier-Gazette Sun, Feb 12, 196, Page 12
The news article listed above by alb1on states: “He was employed with a mining company at Bisbee” I believe that’s in Cochise County, Arizona.
There is no obituary or record of the death of Billy Johnson other than that article (that I could find) in the
The Albuquerque Tribune Fri, Aug 17, 1973, Page 1.
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I think there’s a good strong possibility that this “Billy” Johnson might be the same missing person, Othel (Billy) Johnson. He could have moved back to Bisbee, AZ, married a Navajo woman, mined for 20 years and used his nickname Billy. Maybe his death was never recorded? Concerning the remote location where they lived, that's seems possible. There is no record for Billy Johnson,
May 21, 1972, on Findagrave, Newspapers.cpm or Ancestry.com.
For the record, Othel Ernest Johnson, was born Oct 7, 1914.
