Celebrating a familiar figure

It's likely safe to say that few are the citizens of Fostoria who have not encountered Clancy Johnson. He's been a familiar figure in the city for decades, usually in the vicinity of a local business or walking along a sidewalk, carrying a bagful of belongings and perhaps chatting with passersby, acquaintances or a shop's employees. While he has his detractors for the way he goes about his days, he's appreciated as a kind soul and an empathetic figure by others. And after dozens of people showed up on the lawn of the municipal building at 213 S. Main St., last Friday afternoon to celebrate his 85th birthday. That came a couple of days after 14-year-old Avalyn Stout and her mother, Amanda Sayre Sauceda, after receiving permission, painted a window in his honor at Wolph Chiropractic downtown and others subsequently followed suit at the adjacent Wolph Title. Wolph Title is the workplace of Tami Drake, who frequently chats with Johnson when he stops in on his daily travels. Like many others, Fostoria resident Beth Mosley saw Drake's social-media post noting Johnson's impending birthday and later, with permission from Mayor Eric Keckler, pitched the idea of the birthday party on the municipal building's lawn. "It just took off like wildfire," Mosley said, noting that Domino's donated 20 pizzas to the municipal building to assist in the celebration, which also included decorations on the lawn and a cake being prepared. Johnson was given a ride to the party, and it clearly came as a surprise to him. He initially declined to get out of the vehicle, but he was coaxed into joining the party, where "Happy birthday" was sung to him and he received cards and gifts of scratch-off lottery tickets. He quietly made a revelation in an interview, when he was asked about the presumption of many that he took to the streets by choice and not because he had to do so. "I don't live on the street," he said. Johnson, however, remained a man of some mystery when asked where he lives. "Someplace," he said. "I'm not telling nobody.'" When asked what he thought of the gathering for him, he replied, "It's all right," noting that he'd had birthday parties before, but not in many years. Stout and her mother had often seen Johnson around town. And after hearing a message at her church about performing good deeds in the community, Stout thought to take action on wishing Johnson a happy birthday. "It was kind of a way for us to recognize him and let him know that he does matter, and so he wouldn't be forgotten," said Stout, a rising freshman at Hopewell-Loudon. Fitting to the location, Sauceda drew and then painted hips on the chiropractic office's window and her daughter painted the letters spelling out, "Hip, hip, hooray, it's Clancy's birthday!" Stout has taken the thought of being kind farther by conducting a surprise Easter egg hunt in a trailer park and starting a Facebook page called OhioGirlss4Greatness. People who are interested in future kindness efforts may also email to ohiogirls4greatness@yahoo.com. "I'm very proud of her and I just want to keep encouraging her and everybody else," Sayre Sauceda said. While many have had only fleeting contact with Johnson, Mosley has a greater amount of history with him. She said she's come to learn that he's a cancer survivor, a military veteran and a kind person. "I worked at Certified, my first job," she said. "He would come and take trash out for me. ... Then, when it was time to close, he'd be there 10 minutes before I had to lock that door, to walk me out to my car, to make sure I was safe. And he'd walk away from there every night, just happy as can be that he could help somebody. I'm happy that I get to celebrate him. He's such a blessing to Fostoria."