Helen Louise Dillet Johnson

Helen Louise Dillet Johnson (1842 - 1917), was a mom, musician, and public school teacher. And the first black female teacher in Florida at a grammar school and then at Edwin M. Stanton School.

She imparted to her children her considerable love and knowledge of English literature and the European tradition in music. Her husband James Johnson was born a free man in Richmond, Virginia in 1830.

Helen's father, Stephen Dillet was of French Haitian blood. Her mother (the former Mary Symonett), took her to New York to embark upon a singing career.

When James Johnson migrated to New York, he too was interested in music, heard Helen Louise sing and it was love at first sight.

When the Civil War created so much unrest, Helen Louise and her mother, returned to Nassau, and James Johnson followed. They were married in Christ Church Cathedral on April 22, 1864.

Bringing his wife back to America after the war and settling in Jacksonville, their first child was born, a girl, Marie Louise, on July 10, 1868. On July 17, 1871, James William (in 1913 he changed his middle name to Weldon), was born and on August 11, 1873, John Rosamond arrived.

She died in 1917 in New York City.

Sources: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; The James Weldon Johnson Papers in the Beinecke Library, Yale University