Judge Johnny Morrison of the Portsmouth Circuit Court retired this past December. This loss of a great man from the bench must be memorialized.Judge Morrison was born on June 24, 1952, in Greenville, North Carolina, the third child and second son. All his siblings were born at home, including an older brother and sister, two younger sisters and two younger brothers. His father abandoned the family, and they moved to Lincolnsville in Portsmouth when Judge Morrison was in the third grade.Living in the Ida Barber community on welfare, the family appreciated indoor plumbing and heat in the winter even if there wasn’t air conditioning. As a child, he did many jobs to help, from shoe-shining to working at the barbershop and the Mom & Pop’s aroundWeaver and Chestnut Street, until the interstate was built and Pop Fields moved to 26th and Debree. As a young man, he would take the bus through the tunnel, coming home after dark. In those days, he shares, the younger version of…..