A Year-End Review: Tying Up Some of the Loose Ends From ’84 : A Golden Memorial

Last summer Ruby Braxton held a memorial service to bring recognition to her brother, Cornelius Johnson, a gold medal high jumper at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Johnson had also finished fourth in the 1932 Olympics after his junior year at Los Angeles High School, and Braxton felt that his achievements had been ignored.

The twilight churchyard service for Johnson, which was reported on in View, attracted about 100 persons, and recognition for the athlete again surged.

The Los Angeles City Council presented Braxton with a resolution honoring her brother, who died of bronchial pneumonia in 1946.

First Interstate Bank Athletic Foundation in Los Angeles organized a display of Johnson’s gold medal and other memorabilia.

And when Los Angeles High School’s 1934 class met for its 50th reunion and discovered that their school had no memorial to its first Olympian, they began a drive to present a plaque and trophy case in Johnson’s name.

They wrote to classmates requesting donations in honor of “a unique world-class talent who represented his school and his country with honor and humility.”

Aldo Coronado, financial manager for Los Angeles High School, says the class has raised $1,250. A plaque has been purchased for $100, but principal Patrick DeSantis says he wants a lighted, three-level, 22-foot trophy case that costs about $5,000.

If the alumni can’t raise the money, he said, students will.