This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: sheila1724 Surnames: O'REILLY/JOHNSON Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.rhodeisland.unknown/2094.1.1.1.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I think Clifford Jr is still running East Greenwich Dairy. He's about 63 and I think he has a brother Wayne. Clifford Jr and wife Carole divorced and she remarried his cousin Richard! Both Clifford Jr and Richard worked at the family business at the time, East Greenwich Dairy. Here is that story and obit for Richard's mother, Virginia C. Johnson. PROVIDENCE --- A North Kingstown man has been ordered to pay his former wife $25,000 in damages for calling her a "whore" in front of a crowd waiting to be seated at a popular restaurant. Carole Johnson of Cranston was awarded $5,000 for the humiliation and embarrassment she suffered as a result of the name-calling incident, and $20,000 in punitive damages by a jury in Superior Court Wednesday. Clifford Johnson, her former spouse, also will have to pay $3,850 in interest, for a total of $28,850 under the terms of the judgment. Carole Johnson sued Clifford Johnson for slander after the name-calling episode at the Twin Oaks restaurant in Cranston on Aug. 29, 1986. The case was tried before Judge John P. Bourcier. Carole Johnson was married to Clifford Johnson during the 1960s. She divorced him and married his cousin, Richard Johnson, according to testimony during the trial. At the time, Richard and Clifford were involved in the family business, East Greenwich Dairy. The divorce and subsequent marriage caused a rift in the family, and Richard left the business. Later, Carole and Richard were divorced, and she began to date another man. According to her lawyer, J. Ronald Fishbein, Clifford Johnson came to her in the early 1980s and wanted to reunite, and she agreed. They didn't remarry, but they lived together, he said. After about a year and a half, "he ditched her," Fishbein said. Brought divorce action. Carole Johnson then hired Fishbein, who brought an action in Family Court for a divorce, alleging that Carole and Clifford were bound together in a common-law marriage. The judge refused to accept the allegation, and the divorce petition was denied. The case was appealed to the state Supreme Court, but Carole Johnson lost the appeal. According to testimony at the trial, there were 50 to 75 people in the lobby of the restaurant when Johnson started calling his former wife names and asserting that she was costing him a lot of money. A waiter testified that he heard Johnson call her a "whore" again, after he had been escorted outside. Legally, the word whore is slanderous and defamatory in itself because it suggests that a person has committed a criminal act by engaging in prostitution. Truth is an absolute defense against such an allegation, except when the word is uttered maliciously. Fishbein sought to establish that the utterance was malicious by presenting the testimony of the waiter, who said he heard Johnson call her a "whore" a second time. Joseph A. Keough, Clifford Johnson's lawyer, tried to establish that what his client had said about Carole Johnson was true. Carole Johnson testified that she was pregnant with Richard Johnson's child before her divorce from Clifford became final. Keough tried to convince the jury that Carole Johnson's husband-to-husband-to-boyfriend-to-husband relationships established the truth of Clifford Johnson's utterance. The jury disagreed. Barbara Kiely, wife of retired Superior Court Judge Francis J. Kiely, was the jury forewoman. Copyright Providence Journal/Evening Bulletin Jan 31, 1992 OBITUARY........ VIRGINIA C. JOHNSON, 88, of Oaklawn Avenue, formerly of Blueberry Lane, died Saturday at home. She was the wife of the late Melvin H. Johnson. Born in Brockton, Mass., a daughter of the late Charles E. and Elvira (Olson) Lucas, she lived in Cranston most of her life. Mrs. Johnson was a member of the Cranston Garden Club. She leaves a daughter, Lois B. Bogda of Cranston; two sons, Richard M. Johnson of Stuart, Fla., and Robert Paul Johnson of Berkeley, Calif.; six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. She was the sister of the late Robert Vernon Lucas. Copyright Providence Journal/Evening Bulletin Jan 3, 2000 Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.