O. Fitzhugh Johnson Sr. of Fredericksburg dies

Orrick Fitzhugh Johnson Sr. of Fredericksburg flew 35 missions over Japan as a flight engineer with the 20th Air Force during World War II.

Based in Saipan, his B-29 bomber flew "12 hours to get there and 12 hours to get back," said a son, O. Fitzhugh Johnson Jr. of Fredericksburg.

Anti-aircraft fire hit his plane as he returned from one mission. "When they got over friendly territory, all the crew but he and the pilot parachuted out. They managed to limp back on something like 1½ engines. They didn't think they were going to make it," his son said.

Mr. Johnson, who came home with the Distinguished Flying Cross and later co-founded a real estate business in Fredericksburg, died Thursday in a Richmond retirement home. He was 90.

A graveside service will be held today, Sunday, at 2 p.m. in Fredericksburg City Cemetery.

After the war, Mr. Johnson attended the College of William and Mary for a year, came home, sold newspaper advertising and then went into business for himself.

In 1954, Mr. Johnson and Ray C. Glazebrook teamed to form Johnson & Glazebrook, which became the largest real estate business in the area, his son said.

"Fredericksburg was a small backwater that really grew, and they rode the wave of growth and wound up being very successful. They developed many, many subdivisions, including Braehead Woods, Maple Grove Estates, Confederate Ridge, Bragg Hill and Green Gate Village," his son said. The firm also owned property that was sold for the first Wal-Mart in the area, he said.

In 1956, Mr. Johnson became the first president of the newly formed Fredericksburg Board of Realtors.

He left Johnson & Glazebrook in 1975 to establish and serve as president and principal broker at Johnson Real Estate Services Inc., which primarily appraised real estate. He retired in 2004.

During the 1980s, he served as chairman of MediCorp Health System, when Mary Washington Hospital, which MediCorp owns, expanded into a new building.

He loved tennis, playing three times a week until he was 87, and introduced his entire family to the game. He and his wife were ballroom dancers whom people stepped back to watch, his son said.

He was the widower of Alice Gray Johnson, who died in 1996.

In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of seven years, Martha Kimball Johnson; another son, William R. Johnson; a daughter, Virginia Branscome; and a sister, Mary Virginia Tabb, all of Fredericksburg; and eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.