Audrey J Boyd

Audrey (Mama) Johnson-Boyd was born on May 28, 1935 to the late Reverend John English and the late Mary Johnson. She transitioned peacefully at home surrounded by her family on October 11, 2024. She was 89 years old.

Audrey, “Mama” or “Mom A” as she was affectionately known, attended the Maryland Public School system, Somerset County. Audrey, seeking employment outside of the available agricultural work in her hometown of Princess Anne, left Maryland with her brother Ernest around the age of 18 to seek employment opportunities in Jamesburg, New Jersey. She quickly gained employment as an elevator operator at the Roger Smith Hotel in New Brunswick, a much-desired job for a young black woman in the 1940’s. She later moved to New Brunswick, where she continued her formal education and began her 37 year teaching career with the New Brunswick public school system, retiring in 2010. 

Audrey met and married Cleophus Boyd. Sr. and they remained married until his death in 1991.

Audrey was a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great grandmother and aunt. Her family meant the world to her. Nothing gave her more joy than big family gatherings. She never met a stranger. She made everyone feel as if they were family. Anyone who walked through the door was offered a hot meal, or a place to lay their head, be it long term or short. She was an excellent cook, making the majority of her meals from scratch. Mama also was not one to bite her tongue, always letting you know exactly how she felt, most of the time with love, others times you got the one knuckle. She loved reading, doing crossword puzzles, watching BET, Family Feud and Lebron James (her grandson in her head). 

Audrey was preceded in death by six of her children; three sons, Claude Johnson, Tyrone Johnson, and Wayne Otis Johnson; three daughters Claudia Johnson, Wanda Jean Johnson and Anita Johnson; three grandsons, Robert Johnson, Kenyatta Demings and Rakeem Johnson and one granddaughter, Michaela Johnson; three brothers, Paul Johnson, William Johnson, Ernest Johnson, and two sisters, Ethel Johnson Handy and Esther Johnson White.

Left to cherish her memory are her sons, Darryl Fields (Janice), Cleophus Boyd, Jr. (Jan), daughters Portia Williams, Velma Boyd-Demings (Robert); Sandra Johnson-Davis (Jerome) and Erycka Johnson-Saunders (Michael), twenty-five grandchildren, fifty great-grandchildren, thirty great-great grandchildren and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends. There are not enough words to express what she meant to us. She touched all of our lives in so many ways. Her passing will be forever felt. Life will never be the same.