Mayme Hatcher Johnson is well known for being the wife of American popular criminal Bumpy Johnson. Her husband was the most famous gangster in Harlem, New York. She also wrote a biography of her husband at the age of 93. Scroll down below to know all about her life in this article.
Who Was Mayme Hatcher Johnson?
Mayme Hatcher Johnson was born in 1914, in North Carolina. She completed her formal studies at a government school. She also has siblings, though the names and other details of her parents are unknown. Black Americans in the South felt unsafe during the Jim Crow Era, a time of “separate but equal” segregation between white and Black Americans in the Southern United States. Many families moved to the northern states in search of safer and more satisfying lives. When Mayme moved to New York in 1938, she was employed as a club waitress.
She began her career as a waiter at the singer and actress Ethel Waters’s club, Hagar’s, in Washington Heights. In addition, she worked as a restaurant hostess in Manhattan. Following her marriage to Bumpy, Mayme made the decision to stay at home and take care of her family. She was Bumpy’s devoted and encouraging wife until his passing in 1968.
Mayme Hatcher Johnson And Bumpy Johnson
Ellsworth Raymond Johnson aka Bumpy met Mayme Hatcher in April 1948 at a restaurant on 7th Avenue near 122d Street. The two got along with each other quite quickly. The sources claim that that evening, Mayme and Bumpy left the restaurant together to watch a movie. The couple, who had been dating for six months, got married in a civil ceremony in October 1948.
Elease Johnson was Mayme and Bumpy’s daughter. And from Bumpy’s other relationship, she also had a stepdaughter, Ruthie Johnson. Both of them died in 2006.
About Mayme Hatcher Johnson’s Husband
In the 20th century, the most well-known gangster in New York’s Harlem district was Ellsworth Raymon “Bumpy” Johnson. The South Carolina native, who was born in 1905, relocated to Harlem, New York, with his family on October 31. He got the nickname “Bumpy” because of a big lump on his forehead.
He started doing different odd jobs for money when he was fifteen. When he was seventeen, he was committed to a reformatory. Similarly, he had already served the majority of his time in and out of prison during his 20s.
When Bumpy began working for Stephanie St. Claire, aka “The Queen of Numbers,” the leader of the Harlem mob, in the 1930s, he rose to prominence. Even though he was known as a gangster, he was well-liked by the locals for his charitable demeanour. Johnson was found guilty of selling heroin in 1952 and given a 15-year sentence to serve at the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in California. But he only served ten years before being freed in 1963. On July 7, 1968, Bumpy passed away at the age of sixty-two from heart failure.
Mayme Hatcher Johnson Wrote A Book For His Late Husband
Mayme wanted everyone to know about the real Bumpy after her husband passed away. Her biography, “Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson,” was written as a result. 2008 saw the book’s publication in February. Kare E. Quinones, her goddaughter, co-wrote the book.
On May 1, 2009, the waitress-turned-author Mayme passed away. At the age of 94, she passed away in Kearsley, a retirement community located in West Philadelphia, from heart failure. Mayme leaves behind a sister, Lily Andrews; a brother, Melvin; a granddaughter, Margaret; a great-grandson, Anthony; and two goddaughters, Karen E. Quinones Miller and Camille R. Quinones.
