By Scott A. Grant
He lived in an old pre-Civil War shack overlooking the Matanzas River in Summer Haven, south of St. Augustine. Summer Haven was also home to famous local author of “The Yearling” and other works, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. His name was Gene Johnson, and he served oyster dinners with hush puppies to just about everyone who lived here and to visitors “in the know.”
He was a black man living in a segregated world and his restaurant was little more than a rusted tin roof extending out from his shack over a dirt floor. But his oysters were good and so was the price; all you could eat for 50 cents. And Johnson had a warm and engaging personality. So, they came and kept coming for almost four decades, from 1936 to 1975.
Johnson had some important backers that helped him survive. In Johnson’s case it was the Mellon family from Pittsburgh, who vacationed here. The Mellons are a famous banking family. They had a cottage called Mellon Haven on Mellon Island in Summer Haven. They loved Gene Johnson and his oysters.
Johnson liked to regale guests with stories of his exploits running moonshine in his little johnboat. He knew where all of the sandbars were located and was adroit at navigating around them. And he would tell his listeners with a laugh that sooner or later he would look back and see the pursuing revenuers run aground on a sand bar while he continued on his merry way.
Apparently, he did not always get away. He was arrested more than once by infamous Sheriff L.O. Davis. According to Davis’s daughter, the sheriff would release Johnson on the weekends to serve oysters and hospitality for the weekend.
Other famous guests included the cast of the movie “Distant Drums,” about the Seminole Wars, filmed here locally. They showed up in 1950. The star of that movie, Gary Cooper, saw Johnson poking his oysters with a stick as they steamed under wet burlap and took up the stick himself and started poking. Johnson had none of it and purportedly told the movie star to “stop messing with my oysters.”
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was also a frequent guest and admirer. She wrote about Gene in a book called “Cross Creek Cookery.” In 1986, Summer Haven renamed the road where his restaurant was located, Gene Johnson Road.
Scott A Grant is a local author and historian. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com
