First the gift, then letter

This is a story about a letter, written long after camp’s closing song.

A letter so profound, it was read at the recipient’s funeral.

This story begins at Audrey’s house, spans nearly eight decades, and features remarkable characters who serendipitously find one another through the gift of camp, lose touch, yet reunite to find great meaning in their shared connection.

AUDREY AND ROY

After reading “Letters from Camp” in 2023, Audrey Johnson, 96 years young, felt compelled to return to YMCA Camp St. Croix, a place she has loved since her youth. Upon her arrival last fall, camp business administrator, Nick Duchow, gave her a tour.

As the tour progressed, Audrey told him about her love of camp, her late husband Roy, and the important way camp featured in their lives — including at Roy’s funeral.

Audrey was one of the few women to work at Camp St. Croix in 1952 and 1953. She was the office manager, and she really liked working for Executive Director, Jerry Manlove during the 1950’s.

She enjoyed the people and the philosophy of camp. She became lifelong friends with Jack Murdock, (executive director from 1957-77, who was the waterfront director while she was on staff. Camp, she said, “was so different and separated. The rest of the world didn’t matter.”

After working for camp, Audrey got a job at the newly built Midway YMCA where she met Roy Johnson, a professional musician working for the Y on the side. They were married in 1954. 

THE MUSICIAN, MEL

Roy was friends with fellow musician, Mel Carter Sr. When Mel mentioned wanting to send his son to camp in 1961, because Roy and Audrey didn’t have children and with Audrey’s love of Camp St. Croix, it “never seemed like a big deal for us to pay for his son to go.”

Mel and Roy lost touch over the years, but from time to time, Roy would mention “Mel Carter’s kid. He didn’t forget that we sent him to camp, but he never tried to find him.” For Roy, “it wasn’t about being thanked. He was glad he could help a kid go to camp, but it wasn’t defining.”

It has been over 70 years since Audrey last worked at Camp St. Croix. But Audrey has several scrapbooks, written accounts of her time at camp, memorabilia, a strong memory, and the ability to recount story 
after story.

“We were so fortunate to have the experience,” she said about her time at camp. 

MEL’S SON, MELVIN JR.

While Mel and Roy had lost touch, Mel’s son who went to camp, Melvin Carter Jr., spent years trying to find the Johnsons. Finally, in 2013, a letter arrived at Audrey and Roy’s home.

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October 4, 2013

Dear Mr. Roy Johnson,

My name is Melvin Carter Jr. The year is about 1962. I’m about 12 years old. I don’t know I yet, but the road ahead won’t be that easy. In fact, many of my friends and relatives in my neighborhood ain’t going to make it. As a teenager I’m about the experience the 1960s and face drugs, violence, poverty, multiplicities of crimes, as well as extreme racial unrest. Life is about to throw me confusing and devastating curveballs. But somehow, thank God, I will not meet an early demise, go to prison, or perish in any cataclysmic disaster.

The two boys in this photo are fresh off the YMCA bus returning from Camp St. Croix, one of the best, most meaningful experiences of my formative years. I’m the one in the short sleeve shirt. I’ll spend the next three years as an active Y member, three to four days a week, while my friends will be doing other things.

Over the years, by the grace of God, I’ve done well. Thinking back, seeking to understand how I did not get consumed, the YMCA experience was key. It made a definitive difference that tipped the scale for me, in preparation for the upcoming challenges.

The other guy in the photo is Jimmie Beal, whom you also sponsored. He recently sent this photo from Houston, Texas and was elated that I found you. He too is doing well, says to tell you hello and express his profound gratitude as well.

And now, October 2013, time has passed. Over the decades I’ve searched for this “Roy Johnson guy” whom I only met once, who sponsored two boys that he didn’t even know, who did nothing to deserve it. Eventually I gave up the search.

Ironically, a couple of years ago, Dan Bostrom (who I’ve worked with for over a quarter century) happened to mention his cousin, Roy Johnson, who played sax and worked at “The Y” which was all I knew about you.

Even greater than the search, is the task of finding words to thank you and Mrs. Johnson and expressing the significance in my life. Mere words seem inadequate. Perhaps most meaningful is the spirit of the example you set, and the fact that I’m spending my life replicating. Last week in JDC, one youth asked, “How can you love us when you don’t even know us?” In a brief flash, you came to mind. “Yeah young man” 
I thought, “I remember asking the same question.”

In closing, this thank you letter comes from four people. Jimmie Beal, myself, 
but mainly the two little boys in the photo. May God’s blessing be with you 
and your family.

Sincerely,

Melvin W. Carter Jr.

THE YMCA EXPERIENCE WAS KEY

While Melvin’s letter didn’t go into detail beyond “by the grace of God, I’ve done well,” as it turns out, he’d done incredibly well. In his 2019 autobiography, “Diesel Heart,” he covers his life story in detail. He spent two years serving in the U.S. Navy. In 1975 he met and married his wife Willetha and together they raised their three children Anika, Melvin III, and Alanna (they are also the grandparents of 12 children).

Melvin was sworn in as a police officer in 1976 and had a 28-year career with the St. Paul Police Department, reaching the rank of Sergeant-Investigator before retiring in 2003. In 1994, using his own money, he founded the nonprofit organization Save Our Sons, mentoring young men in the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center.

He continues to serve as its executive director. He said, “Camp helped me understand that the world was a bigger place than just my immediate neighborhood. It gave me a sense that I could love my neighbor. I got a sense that what I did mattered.”

Melvin earned his bachelor’s degree from St. John’s 
University the year after he retired. In 2005, his wife would become the first Black county commissioner in the state of Minnesota. And his son, Melvin Carter III? Well, if the name sounds familiar there’s a reason for it. He’s the current mayor of the City of St. Paul.

His list of accomplishments (as well as those of his family) is long and his story is that of a life well lived.

A REUNION BEFORE THE FUNERAL

After Melvin found Roy Johnson and sent him the letter, they met together with Audrey in person. He was happy to finally connect and thank them for “the profound gift they gave me.”

Roy Johnson died just three months after receiving the letter and meeting Melvin.

They both acknowledged feeling a sense that this was no coincidence.

At the funeral, Audrey asked Melvin to read the letter. And in the acknowledgements of Melvin’s book, he thanks Roy.

Since Roy’s funeral in 2013, Audrey and Melvin Jr. have kept in touch and both speak warmly and with affection about the other. Their relationship has been reciprocal and transformational, proving that there’s no such thing as “just” a summer experience at a YMCA camp.

Put another way, while the story starts with the Johnsons opening a door for Melvin Jr. to a relatively brief summer experience, it ends with Melvin speaking words that define Roy’s entire life, sharing some of the last public sentiments ever expressed about him.