Wendell Bird Johnson, 47, former justice of the peace and mayor of Mapleton, died March 19, 1996, in Utah Valley Regional Medical Center after a long illness.
Mr. Johnson served as justice of the peace for six years and mayor from 1982 to 1986, after being paralyzed as a teen from the neck down in a swimming accident.As a youth he was talented as an artist, but after the accident had to teach himself to draw and paint again. Eventually, he was able to work not only with pencils but with watercolors and oils. He also learned to use a typewriter. Twenty of his more than 200 paintings were exhibited at the Springville Museum of Art.
Mr. Johnson graduated from Springville High School in 1966, and helped write a book on Mapleton's history.
Mr. Johnson was an elder in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and had once been a Sunday School teacher in the Mapleton 1st Ward, Mapleton Stake.
A funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Friday in the Mapleton Stake Center, 970 N. 400 East. Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Wheeler Mortuary, 211 E. 200 South, Springville, and from 1 to 1:45 p.m. Friday at the church. Burial will be in the Springville Evergreen Cemetery.