Flossie Ellen Clark Johnson

Year Inducted: 2022

When one hears the name Flossie Johnson, the First Lady of NASCAR usually comes to mind; but for those who know her best, her life and legacy can be summed up in three words: faith, family, and food.

Flossie Ellen Clark Johnson was born in 1929 in Wilkes County to Julius and Cordie Williams Clark. She graduated from Wilkesboro High School in 1947, and after graduation worked as a telephone operator at Southern Bell in Winston-Salem, and then as a switchboard operator at Holly Farms. During this time, she met and lent her support to a fledgling race car driver named Junior Johnson. While Junior built the cars, Flossie built the business, cooking meals for the crew members in the early days, as well as scheduling their travel to races, keeping the books, and meeting payroll. Together, as car co-owners, the two of them built a racing dynasty that won six NASCAR championships.

While racing was important to Flossie, her faith was her priority. It was through her mother that she developed a deep and abiding faith that sustained her throughout her life. She grew up going to church, and was a devoted member of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church for over sixty years. She never hesitated in demonstrating her love of Christ through her kindness and compassion to anyone she met.

Family was an integral part of everything Flossie did, and included in her “family” were the people from NASCAR, her church, her community, and beyond. She was keenly interested in the various events in each group, and contributed her time, talents, and financial resources to each one of these. Although she was active in many pursuits that involved her definition of family, she did not seek any accolades. However, she was inducted into the Living Legends of Auto Racing in 2009, was a member of the Hugh Chatham Hospital Board, and a perennial volunteer at Merlefest Main Stage dining area. She hosted countless benefits and supported scores of community functions at her facilities in Ingle Hollow, always with a smile and the desire to make everyone feel like they were one of her folks.

And of course, if you mention Flossie Johnson, you think of food. By the time she was a teenager, she was already an accomplished cook, learning at a young age by standing in a chair at her mother's side in front of the stove. During the early NASCAR years at nearby tracks, people would never leave with an empty stomach after a stop at Flossie’s car and her well-stocked trunk. During the North Wilkesboro race weekends, her kitchen was a magnet for drivers, crew and friends alike for a hearty Saturday morning breakfast. But even if you simply stopped by her house, there would always be an offer of down home comfort food. Her cooking became so renowned that she was urged to author and publish three cookbooks. The cookbooks were a smashing success, and there were multiple publications. True to her nature, she donated all the proceeds to various charities and always offered to individually sign each one.

In an interview in 2007, when asked what has given her the most pleasure in her life, Flossie said “It’s the people that I’ve met and the friends that I’ve made and the family that I have”. That sentiment is expressed in one of her favorite poems, “The Dash” by Linda Ellis, which speaks to how one lives their life between the dates on their tombstone. One stanza that was especially meaningful for her was the following:

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars...the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.
Unmistakably, Flossie Johnson demonstrated how to spend the dash.