William Froman Johnson
Aug. 19, 1951 - Dec. 27, 2020
Born the first son of Bill and Beth Johnson, William Froman, Junior, entered this world in the then-unairconditioned St. Francis Hospital of Ponca City during the August heat of 1951. He spent the first third of his life known as “Froman” and the latter two-thirds as “Will.” Contracting the coronavirus on the eve of Christmas, he was at home when he sustained an apparent sudden heart attack after Christmas night.
Froman grew up in Newkirk, graduating from high school in 1969, then attending The University of Oklahoma. Ever the entrepreneur, he started his own hay hauling business during high school, then, during his college days, founded two popular pubs, The Jockey Strap Saloon and Donovan’s Reef. After transferring to SMU, where he earned his business degrees, Froman started and managed, sometimes simultaneously, a laundry, a boot store, and a pizzeria.
Through all these years and entrepreneurial ventures, Froman manifest a thirst to seek and engage in human contact as an entertainer. Known to so many as an unparalleled raconteur and stand-up comedian, he had no peer save those who actually got paid for their efforts (think Robin Williams before Mork and Mindy). In his absence, we will all laugh a little less.
Will left Dallas for a brief sojourn in Southern California, and then returned to Oklahoma City, where he continued to, restlessly and relentlessly, pursue free-market opportunities in the world of finance and property management, most recently "Rent To Own America." While also, finding the time to innovate a brand of tequila (brought to market successfully by someone other than Will), still popular today.
In the last two decades, Will came to know Christ and long enjoyed his association with Crossings Church. Over the past decade, he was blessed, and ever grateful, for a close relationship with his business partner and his family.
Whether you knew him as Froman, Will, or both, you surely knew him as a bighearted, fun-loving man who was always plotting his next business prospect, extolling it as a certain winner. Somehow, too suddenly, his next venture is not of this world, but he would have faith that it is a certain winner.
Given the current pandemic, a memorial service will be held when conditions permit his friends and family to gather safely.
He would wish memorials to be sent to Crossings Community Church, 14600 N. Portland Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73134.