BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY | Special to the Birmingham Times
DAVIDA & BURRELL JOHNSON JR.
Live: Fairfield
Married: Sept. 5, 2009
Met: Nov. 16, 2005, at Charles A. Brown Elementary School in Birmingham.
Burrell was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal service in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was relocated and assigned to a Birmingham postal facility in 5-Points West following Hurricane Katrina. Burrell was delivering mail to the main office [of the school] when he smelled fresh coffee brewing and asked a custodian where he could get a cup and was pointed to Davida’s classroom.
Davida was on her lunch break with her coworkers when Burrell walked in wearing full post office [garb], uniform, hat and everything. And he said ‘Hello, Ms. Hill, I’m Burrell. Is there any way I can get a cup of coffee?’
Davida was more than happy to oblige as she was taken by his good looks. “…and when I got up to get him one, we bumped into each other and stumbled over one of the children’s desks,” she laughed. Both admit to being very attracted to one another and said it was love at first sight from the first hello.
Burrell relished the moment and coffee. “We asked each other if we had anyone significant to us, and we both said, ‘no.’ And then I asked her what area she was from and she said ‘Wenonah’ and I was from West End and then we discovered that we had a lot in common. [We were both high school athletes], we knew some of the same people, and wondered how we’d never crossed paths,” Burrell said. “Then I asked her if she would like to go out and shoot pool with me, and she said ‘yes’, and we went on our first date the next day.”
First date: Nov. 17, 2005, at The Break Pool Hall on Birmingham’s south side. Davida is an experienced and competitive pool player, as is Burrell. “I beat him that first pool game…. I knew I had it after he scratched the 8 ball,” Davida laughed, “he didn’t know I knew the rules of the game. We are both Leo’s [zodiac sign] and very competitive, it was a fun night.”
“Davida kept cheating,” Burrell laughed, “she kept bending over the table and looking back to see if I was looking (and of course I was), and when it was my turn to shoot, she’d walk in front of me and stand and cause distractions. She had on some jeans that I still love to see her in 19 years later.”
Davida said, “it was on and popping after that.”
The turn: The two immediately became a pair and dated exclusively for a year. In 2006, Burrell’s original New Orleans post called him back to the city, and the two dated long-distance for a year and a half. In 2007, after being denied a transfer to Birmingham, he resigned and moved back to his home state for Davida. “That was the best thing that I could’ve ever done,” he said.
“We fell asleep on the phone together every single night during that long distance until he decided he was going to bring it home in February 2008,” Davida said.
The proposal: March 2008, at their shared residence in Forestdale. One evening over drinks with the fireplace burning, the two began an intimate conversation; one that Davida calls “a collaborative effort.”
“We had both had previous marriages, and Burrell and I were talking and he said are you sure you want to take this next step? because I want to give you my last name, and I said ‘yes’,” Davida said.
“After that, I went to Pop [Davida’s daughter, Crystalyn, who was 10 at the time], that’s my baby, I helped raise her because I been in her life since she was 7… and I asked her how she felt about me marrying her mother, and she said ‘yes’ so then we set the date and Mrs. Johnson did the planning, it was going down,” said Burrell.
The wedding: At New Creations in Woodlawn, officiated by their now-retired pastor, Dr. T.L. Lewis, of Bethel Baptist Missionary Church. Their colors were champagne, bronze, ivory, and gold.
Their wedding day started with bad weather, causing accidents on the interstate and a lag in the officiants’s arrival. However, [Pastor] Lewis was able to get a police escort to the wedding venue and assured the bride everything was alright. “I was upset and crying because of the weather, and he said, ‘daughter, don’t you know that after the rain comes a harvest? The Lord is going to bless y’alls marriage with prosperity’. And after he said that, all my tears dried up,” Davida said.
The bride and groom most remember “the salt combining” ceremony.
“He [Dr. T.L. Lewis] said in order for us to get a divorce from one another we would have to be able to separate the salt. Until you can do that, you will not be able to get a divorce, so y’all will be in love forever’,” said Burrell.
“And we have been ever since,” said Davida. “People say we still act like we’re newlyweds. Everywhere we go we coordinate [our looks], everywhere we go people see our love. They say we dress the part, look the part, speak the part, our love stands tall.”
The pair wrote their own vows, and the pastor thought them so profound that he made them come to church the next morning for Sunday service to recite them before the congregation.
“He said, ‘I need you all to do this because they were so powerful they would save other marriages,’” Davida recalled.
They honeymooned at the Drury Inn and Suites on 280.
Words of wisdom: “My words of wisdom would be for men, ‘be slow to anger, keep the peace in the household, and keep God first,’” Burrell said. “If God is first, he’ll help you lead your family. Never go to bed angry, always communicate, and don’t forget to tell the one you love you love them because you never know, they may not wake up the next day. And lastly, always remember Proverbs 18:22– [Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. KJV]
“A woman should always have effective communication because communication is the key in any marriage. Always respect your husband and his place in the household, you are a representation of God and your husband. Understand the needs of your significant other and be a virtuous woman based on the scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 [Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud … ],” Davida said. “When you do so, you’re fulfilling his needs and his wants in the marriage, and women tend to lose [sight of fulfilling their spouses needs] these days and are more worried about themselves when it goes both ways. When you as a wife understand your place in the household you know that the wife creates stability in the home.”
Happily ever after: The Johnsons attend Bethel Baptist Missionary Church in Pratt City, where Burrell and Davida serve as a Deacon and Deaconess, and on the First Sunday Usher Board. Burrell also works on the missionary team. They are a blended family with three adult children: Crystalyn Hill, 26, Christian Johnson, 26, and DeAngelo Smith, 38, and they also have one grandchild, Deunte Johnson, 2.
Davida, 54, is a Birmingham native from the Garden Highlands area near Wenonah, and a Wenonah High School grad. She attended Miles College where she earned a B.S. in elementary education, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB] where she earned a master’s degree in educational leadership, and an Ed.S in educational leadership. Davida works as the executive director for 6-12 of Montgomery Public School System and has been an educator for 30 years.
Burrell, 56, is a West End native, and West End High School grad. He attended Elizabethtown Community College in Kentucky, where he began his general studies before deployment in the U.S. Army, in Fort Knox, Kentucky where he served as a Cavalry Soldier. Burrell served 12 years and 7 months in the military before relocating back to Birmingham in 2005 from New Orleans, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. He is an honorable disabled veteran and works as a truck driver for Walpole Inc.
“You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them. If you would like to be considered for a future “Hello’’ column, or know someone, please send nominations to Barnett Wright bwright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number(s) and what makes their love story unique.
