Not far from the intersection that marks the center of Murfreesboro, this marker is along the roadside and points out a local citizen with a history of history. It has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Folklorist and publisher. Left newspapering 1962 to chronicle folkways & peoples of northeastern North Carolina. Office stood here."
"F. Roy Johnson is a hunter of sorts, a man after rare game. His prey is often elusive as a fox, and the terrain he covers can be delicate. He stalks the folk tales and memories of another time." So began a feature story in the September 1, 1981, issue of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. The subject was Frank Roy Johnson, a native of Bladen County who moved to Murfreesboro in 1940. He was a 1932 graduate of Duke University, where he worked on the student newspaper and met his future wife, Margaret Hamlin.
Beginning his newspaper career in 1934, Johnson founded and merged two titles in Murfreesboro before selling them in 1962 to focus on documenting northeastern North Carolina's history and folklore. Through Johnson Publishing Company, he produced twenty-two books on topics ranging from Native American history and Nat Turner to riverboating and regional legends, often setting type and binding each copy by hand using salvaged equipment. A mentor to scholars like Thomas Parramore and Frank Stephenson, Johnson collaborated with the Division of Archives and History, earned recognition from the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1976, and left behind a rich archival legacy upon his death in 1988.
This is marker number A-86 and it was erected in 2014 by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.
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