Love Story: His trust in her brought out the best in him

Cleveland Johnson Jr. of Central Islip recalls how he met his wife, Joan.

It was 1955. I had just returned home to the Morrisania section of the Bronx after graduating from Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana. I was staying in one of the apartments at Dad’s three-family house. Joan Blondelle Maloney had moved up from West Palm Beach, Florida, a few months earlier. She was living with her aunt in the upstairs apartment and working for the New York Telephone Co. I was 21. She was 22.

I had a clerical job at a hospital. On workdays, I would come home and have my dinner with friends at the nearby Rainbow Bar and Grill on Prospect Avenue. Afterward, we would stand outside, watching the scenery. One day, Joan walked by and one of the guys said, “Now, THAT’S a walk.” I had to agree but cautioned him that she was “family.” He didn’t believe me and said he would introduce himself next time he saw her.

Well, I couldn’t let him get involved. Joan’s cousin was my brother-in-law. I didn’t know her that well, so I made it my business to speak to her the next day. A few months later, we went on our first date.

I wasn’t a goody two-shoes growing up nor were my friends. Joan was a good girl. Never spoke ill about anyone, always helpful, always kind, always with a ready smile. People we knew wondered how she put up with me. She was the redeeming quality in my life. She made me see the good in people. In those early years, Joan was the only person I could trust implicitly. I didn’t always like myself back then, but somehow she saw something in me that I couldn’t.

In 1957, I was drafted into the Army. The day I finished basic training, on April 20, 1957, we were married in the chapel on base at Fort Mead, Maryland. We spent our honeymoon at our apartment on St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. Two weeks later, I reported to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where I served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Company B, as a mail and company clerk. Joan stayed behind.

I finished my military service in 1959 and joined the NYPD. In 1961, we moved to Central Islip, where we built our home and raised our family. Joan has blessed me with four great children!

In 1965, I left the NYPD as a patrolman in the Bureau of Criminal Identification in Manhattan. Then I worked in various town, county and state positions from 1965 through 1988. I was appointed regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Region 2, from 1990 until I retired in 1994.

Since we didn’t have a traditional wedding, we renewed our vows in 1997 for our 40th anniversary; it was followed by a formal reception. We recently celebrated our 61st anniversary at Timber Point Country Club in Great River with family and friends.

Over the years, I have watched Joan blossom. I am very, very proud of her accomplishments. She received her master’s in social work from Stony Brook University and went on to have an illustrious career with the Town of Islip. She was appointed deputy commissioner of Human Resources and elected to four terms as Islip Town Clerk from 1991 to 2007. In 1995, she won the Ms. Senior New York State title, going on to finish as first runner-up in the Ms. Senior America Pageant. She also ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress in 2000.

Joan is my gift from God. I just don’t know what I’d be like today if she hadn’t come into my life. God has been good. 

— With Virginia Dunleavy