Miss Bobbi

“God has given me the ability to work all my life and I try to help those who can’t help themselves”

-Miss Bobbi Johnson

Miss Bobbi was a grand dame who ran 2 full-fledged roach-infested motels on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, the Imperial and the Sundowner. Both were popular with meth cookers. Not unlike the Wizard of Oz—pulling strings behind the curtains—Miss Bobbi, a frail yet feisty horoscope reading motel matriarch was a last hope and resort for many of the down-an-out in Ocean Springs. During the last two years of her life, she operated both motels from the confines of her bed. Her lungs would collapse every few months, but that didn’t keep her from a pack plus a day smoking habit. Rolled up against the far wall with a bell to ring for help, Miss Bobbi sat propped up on a stuffed panda—making calls, writing checks, directing her “musketeers”, watching TV and the security videos. A dingy cloth noose dangled above her knees and a hunting knife, oxygen mask, pills, and boxes of green Salem 100s were strewn around her prone body. Her own dramatic likeness reflected back at her from a Snow White-esque mirror at the foot of the bed.