by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Laurence Johnson was nicknamed “Nonnie” on the day of his birth, but it was decades after his death before his children found out why. For Nonnie’s son Tommy Johnson, the answer came long after he’d given up hope of solving the puzzle.

“My dad and all of his siblings had already died, and none of them ever knew why he was called Nonnie anyway,” says Tommy. “There was just no way at all to ever figure it out after all the parties involved had passed away.”