A proposal to rename Clarendon’s Smiley Johnson Municipal Airport ran into heated opposition when the Board of Aldermen met in regular session February 14.
Extra chairs were set out to accommodate the unusually large crowd, and local resident Abby Patten took the floor during public comments to speak against removing Johnson’s name from the airport.
“I remember going to walk at the airport with my grandpa and remember his oxygen tank bouncing up and down because the runway was rough and rocky,” Patten said. “Then Smiley Johnson came to town. He poured his heart and soul in to the airport, got grants, and worked with his hands to improve it.”
Patten outlined the work Johnson did on the airport, called the notion of taking his name off the airport “disrespectful,” and asked if the city might also rename McClellan Field, Hart-Moore Field, or the Burton Memorial Library.
Enterprise editor Roger Estlack also spoke against the name change, calling Johnson a good man who had publicly stood up for a young editor at a time when no one else would.
Later in the meeting, Mayor Larry Hicks said he had wanted to rename the airport for the late Dr. Charles Deyhle, who had been a longtime supporter of the airport.
“This was my idea, and I didn’t mean for it to be big deal,” Hicks said. “Chuck Deyhle was a real good friend of mine, and he did a lot for the airport, and I thought it was fitting.”
The board agreed to take no action on the airport name, and the mayor said he hoped that was a suitable solution because he did not want to do something that would get everyone upset.
According to Enterprise files, Smiley Johnson was a member of the Board of Aldermen from May 2000 to October 2001. He was among a group of men who worked to furnish a pilots’ lounge to provide a resting place for travelers, and he helped efforts to have a water well installed at the airport. He also was instrumental in acquiring a tower on which to re-mount the signal beacon. Johnson’s biggest contribution to the airport was considered to be his work in obtaining a state grant worth more than $800,000 to make improvements at the facility. The former alderman did much of the legwork to secure the grant, and then mayor Tex Selvidge said Johnson made several trips to Austin at his own expense on behalf of the city.
The city renamed the airport Smiley Johnson Municipal Airport/Bass Field in his honor in April 2004 while Johnson was in hospice care suffering from cancer. He died the following month at the age of 69.
The name “Bass Field” remains attached to the airport in honor of John M. Bass, the former owner of the land acquired in the early 1990s to extend the runway.
In other airport news last week, Aldermen approved a resolution authorizing the city’s participation in a Texas Department of Transportation Aviation Division grant. The $80,000 grant would develop a new airport layout plan that City Administrator Lambert Little said could then be used to pursue other grants. The city would have to put up ten percent of the money, but city officials say that money is already set aside in the airport fund.
Little also presented several housekeeping items related to the grant, including the creation of a committee to evaluate a new Airport Layout Plan, for the aldermen’s consideration. These items were approved, and the city’s existing airport advisory board will serve as the committee for the grant.
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