Hal Johnson

***COURTESY ANNOUNCEMENT***

William Hal Johnson of Jefferson, N.C., died Tuesday, February 18, of complications related to dementia at Margate Health & Rehab Center in Jefferson. He was 87.

Born May 12, 1937, in Taylorsville, N.C., Hal was the eldest son of Fred and Thelma Shaver Johnson. Raised on an apple orchard and small farm with his younger siblings, Martha and Gary, Hal spent his childhood hunting, fishing, and playing baseball. Inspired by his idol, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, Hal became a standout high school player and cemented his spot in Taylorsville High School lore by slamming three home runs in a single game during his senior year, a feat that would be discussed at THS class reunions for years after.

His skill on the baseball diamond garnered Hal a walk-on roster spot on North Carolina State University’s baseball team in 1956, but his athletic career was cut short his freshman year when Hal’s father, Fred, died suddenly, requiring the younger Johnson to help out on the orchard during baseball season. Though forced to quit baseball, Hal nonetheless earned a degree with honors in wildlife conservation.

In 1958, while at NCSU, Hal met a leggy, stunning brunette, Sarah Mae Leggett of Hamilton, N.C., at the Sears department store where they both worked.

 (She, in the Baby Department, he, in the Shoe Department.) “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” he would say for years after. “I wasn’t going to let her get away.”

After marrying Sarah in 1959, the young couple moved to Ames, Iowa, where Hal attended graduate school at Iowa State University. Upon earning his master’s degree in journalism, he landed the job of Southeast Region editor of The Progressive Farmer magazine, a position based in Raleigh, N.C. He would go on to log an illustrious 10-year stint with the well-known agricultural magazine, writing and editing hundreds of stories related to farming and rural living in the Southeast U.S. and completing the first of two careers that would prove highly influential in the ag industry.

During his years with The Progressive Farmer, Hal became interested in the Christmas tree industry and in 1966 purchased an overgrown Taylorsville farm where he used to hunt squirrels and rabbits as a teenager. The property was referred to by locals as “Booger Mountain,” because of its reputation to be haunted. Hal named his company “Booger Mountain Christmas Trees” and began selling white pine trees on a small lot in Raleigh in the late 1960s. Over the next many years, the company grow into an iconic brand across the Piedmont region of North Carolina, and to this day, is a mainstay of the holiday season in the Tar Heel State. Meanwhile, Hal and Sarah produced three other “major accomplishments:” son, Greg, in 1961; daughter, Teri, in 1963; and son, Mark, in 1966.

After the Johnsons moved from Raleigh to Ashe County, N.C., in 1977 to pursue full-time farming, Hal’s company became widely known as one of the first to produce high-quality Fraser Fir trees and would prove pivotal in North Carolina’s burgeoning Christmas tree industry. Many tree seminars and “field days” were held on Hal’s farms during the ‘70s and ‘80s, and he was often a featured speaker at industry events.

In 1982 and ’84, the Johnsons were named Grand Champion Growers by the National Christmas Tree Association and presented trees to President and Mrs. Reagan both of those years. This honor would result in a 25-year relationship with White House staff, during which Booger Mountain supplied trees, wreaths, and roping during the holidays. In addition to the tree farm, the Johnsons also had a popular pick-your-own strawberry operation, grew 25 acres of flue-cured tobacco (the most in North Carolina at the time), and produced and sold sorghum molasses syrup at local markets and general stores.

During the ‘80s, Hal became highly active in Ashe County government and activities. Among other things, he served on the Ashe County Planning Board and was a critical voice in the creation of the county’s Christmas in July festival, now in its 41st year.

In the late ‘80s, Booger Mountain Christmas Trees fell victim to the agricultural banking crisis that swept the country, and the Johnsons were forced to give up part of their business, a loss from which Hal would never fully recover. He and Sarah then moved to Mountain City, Tennessee, in the mid-1990s, where he continued to work in the Christmas tree industry on a smaller scale while also developing careers in the fire truck industry and pumpkin farming. The Johnsons finally moved back to Jefferson in 2018.

Among friends and family, Hal was well-known for his love of Atlanta Braves baseball, his “Super Boogers” industrial league softball team, his refurbished antique Ford tractor, trout fishing, grouse hunting, “Snowbird” singer Ann Murray, homemade ice cream, strawberry-rhubarb pie, gardening, national politics, doting on his grandchildren, and N.C. State Wolfpack athletics. Aside, perhaps, from meeting and visiting with President Ronald Reagan, he counted as his fondest memory witnessing in person the unlikely NCAA National Championship of the N.C. State Wolfpack in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1983 alongside sons Greg and Mark. Among his many accomplishments, Hal was most pleased that Booger Mountain Christmas Trees touched multiple thousands of families and generations over its six decades of existence and has become such an integral part of the Christmas tradition for so many North Carolinians.

A devout Christian and believer, Hal was a highly active member of Jefferson United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church of Mountain City, where he sang in the choir.

Hal is survived by his wife of 66 years, Sarah Leggett Johnson, of Jefferson; son, Greg Johnson and his wife, Jenny, of Jefferson; daughter, Teri Pasley and her husband, Todd, of Raleigh; son, Mark Johnson and his wife, Holly, of Kingston Springs, Tennessee; sister, Martha McRee, and her husband, Troy, of Catawba County; and brother, Gary Johnson, and his wife, Bunny, of Sparta. He is also survived by granddaughters Laramie Johnson, Kelsey Johnson, Thea Pasley, Isabelle Pasley, and Ava Johnson; grandsons Sam and Pete Johnson; great-grandchildren Aaliyah and Adrian; and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life is being planned for this spring. Details will be announced at a later time.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Hal Johnson, please visit our floral store.