Funeral services for 3-year-old Tejahn Marquel ReShawn Johnson will be held Saturday, 1 p.m., at South Parkway Worship Center, 3000 S. Vienna, Ruston. Tejahn was pronounced dead Monday at St. Francis North Hospital in Monroe. He was born in Ruston Feb. 13, 2004, the son of Kimberly Chollette and Terry Johnson.
Family and friends called him T. J., the energetic little man who hung out with his Uncle Shawn, a journalism student at Louisiana Tech University, who also divided his time as a staff member at The Gramblinite, the student newspaper at Grambling State University.
T. J. was a curious child who loved school and loved hanging out with his uncle at Tech and Grambling. He quickly became a part of a two campus collegiate family, his uncle’s fraternity, Upsilon Phi Upsilon at Tech, and staffers at The Gramblinite.
When he wasn’t attending college with his Uncle Shawn, he attended daycare programs at New Living Word Ministries and South Parkway Worship Center.
T.J. later enrolled at Paul E. Slaton Head Start in Ruston where he received an award for participating in the 2007 Head Start Pageant.
His college friends, classmates and family knew he was an avid fan of all things Spider Man. With this passion for Spider Man, T. J. was on the path to be the future president of a Web crawler’s local fan club.
His flare for creativity with magic markers and other artistic instruments resulted in mostly murals — the majority on his mother’s walls.
T.J.’s charming smile, disarming personality and infectious laugh were many of the qualities that pulled people into his sphere. His legacy will live on as he continues to touch others with his organs that were donated to children in New Orleans, Missouri and Washington.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by his sister, Shakira Stringfellow; fraternal grandparents Sharon and Curtis Moses, and maternal grandparents Mary and Stanley Chollette; aunts Ebony Johnson, Hillary Chollette and Ashley Chollette; uncles Kerry Johnson, Ra’man Johnson, and Shawn Chollette and a host of relatives, elders and friends.
T.J. lived, laughed, loved and is loved. Although his time on earth was short, his impact will continue to reach. He will be deeply missed.