OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Larry Johnson, focused on a career trajectory in the automotive industry and an interest in community activism, never imagined a trip down the river would open up a series of opportunities and new experiences.
It was a unique and propitious opportunity for a young man who found himself in the right place at the right time. Ocala’s most famous natural attraction would become an environment in which Johnson would immerse himself, becoming a riverboat captain at Silver Springs and eventually piloting the world-renowned glass-bottom boats.
It was through his father, the revered Rev. Leroy Johnson, and Silver Springs boat captain Oscar Collins–who’d been a fixture at the attraction for more than six decades, since before the attraction was desegregated–that the younger Johnson would literally get his feet wet…