Singer Betty Johnson’s extraordinary voice lifted her from the arduous cotton fields of North Carolina to the luxury of Park Avenue. From the sweet sounds of the Johnson Family Singers, America’s first family of gospel, to the elegant rhythms of her solo career in top venues around the globe, music was the saving force in a difficult life filled with personal hardships and devastating secrets. The Cinderella tale of this hard-working, determined woman leaves you cheering as the triumphs of her later life overshadow the pain of her early life. This is a story of tremendous faith and even greater love, but above all, it is a story of music, told by the author in her still beautiful voice, with actual recordings spanning over seventy years of her career.

A Brief Word About Betty Johnson

Betty Johnson’s first career in music coincided with the music career of her family, The Johnson Family Singers. Starting in 1938 and throughout the 1940’s, this young soprano sang hymns with her parents and three brothers at churches, military bases and on a daily radio broadcast throughout the South. As the 1950’s dawned, Betty began her second career, a solo career that took her from NYC to San Francisco and Chicago to New Orleans with live performances on a regular basis. Frequent appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and Jack Paar’s Tonight Show coincided with the recording of several hit songs for RCA, Bell Records, and Bally Records in Chicago. In 1958, Betty joined Atlantic records and hit the pop charts with 3 hits in her first year alone. Fast forward 50 years and Betty is well into her third career in music. If you ask her how it’s going, she’s likely to respond...”Life is good and it just keeps getting better.

About In Her Own Words

Recorded and Edited by Dave Gilliss, Wave Creative on St. Croix, U.S. VIrgin Islands
Winter 2006
Graphic Design: Sergio Sandino for Play-It Productions, NYC
Audio Mastering: Charles DeMontebello, CDM Studios, NYC
Produced by: Betty Johnson
Executive Producer: Betty Johnson