Jesse Johnson, West Virginia environmental activist and politician, died Thursday, April 10, 2025.

He is remembered as a fiery speaker opposed to mountaintop removal and Marcellus Shale gas extraction. As a member of the West Virginia Mountain Party, Johnson ran for governor in 2004, 2008, and 2012 ensuring ballot access for the subsequent four years. He also ran for US Senate in 2010 and House of Delegates in 2014.

The Mountain Party is grateful to Jesse for his years of service to the party as a former chair and candidate. We send condolences to his family and many friends.

Mountain Party
April 11, 2025

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved JESSE C. JOHNSON JR. Jesse was born on March 2, 1959, and was welcomed into Heaven on April 10, 2025. He bravely fought a very difficult battle with cancer until the end.

Jesse was proud of his Scottish heritage, as his ancestors guarded the borders of Scotland. His ancestors from his mother's side include Peregrine White who was on the Mayflower, and even Jesse James is a distant relative. Jesse lived a full life - he met Muhammad Ali, went on a date with Brooke Shields (and her mother), rode motorcycles with David Crosby, and even took care of some big cats - Siberian tigers. He lived for a time in both New York and California before eventually returning home to West Virginia to care for loved ones.

In 1985, Jesse was proud to be selected as leader of an expedition into a remote jungle area of Costa Rica, under the auspices of the United Nations, to prove the existence, or extinction, of the last tribe of the Cabécar Indians.

Jesse was many things, including an actor, artist, musician, activist, and politician - a true renaissance man. While still attending Sissonville High School, he helped start the first EMS in the Kanawha Valley, acted in his first play Little Mary Sunshine, won his first award for acting, and performed in the rock band Xerricc, which opened for Grand Funk Railroad in Huntington. He was a Boy Scout master. He attended various colleges in and out of state.

Jesse was a champion of the Mountain Party of West Virginia and served as their chairman for several years. He fought earnestly for the people of West Virginia as an advocate for justice, a cleaner environment, and human rights. In 2004 and through several additional election cycles, he was the Mountain Party's candidate for Governor and once for US Senate. His were totally grassroots campaigns. He was a long-time member of WV Citizen Action Group, which awarded him their Thomas A. Knight Excalibur Award for public service in 2017. He was also an active member of the Charleston Anvil Club.

Jesse was a fierce advocate for environmental justice and fought against Mountain Top Removal Mining and participated in the anniversary march for the protection of Blair Mountain Battlefield. Jesse believed in keeping money out of politics and of people participating in their own governance. He frequently quoted, "The government is for the people by the people". He worked tirelessly for and was instrumental in the passage of the 2017 Medical Cannabis Act in West Virginia.

Jesse was a leading activist featured in Running for the Mountains, a powerful and multi-award-winning documentary on WV environmental justice & politics. He attended the world premiere last year with his family in Santa Barbara, California, and they also attended the premiere in Middlebury, Vermont.

Additionally, Jesse was a multitalented musician, singer, and actor who, in his earlier years, had dozens of leading and supporting roles in films, theater and musicals - local, regional, and national. Locally, he had major roles in several Kanawha Players, Charleston Stage Company and Charleston Light Opera Guild productions including Randle McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Jamie Lockhart in "The Robber Bridegroom," The Street Singer in "Three Penny Opera," Magaldi in "Evita," Berger in "Hair" and Atahualpa in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun", he felt that this was one of his best performances.

In film, Jesse had major roles in two of Danny Boyd's movies "Chillers" and "Invasion of the Space Preachers" and, during his period in Hollywood, a leading role in the film "Phantom Love" and as one of Dustin Hoffman's pirates in Steven Spielberg's movie "Hook." He also played Colonel George S. Patton in Calvin Grimm's locally produced "River of Hope" movie.

Jesse was also a co-owner of the now-legendary "Charleston Playhouse and Tavern," a theater/restaurant/nightclub in Kanawha City in 1989 and 1990. He was on WV film festival boards and wrote and sang the song 'Ya Gotta Regatta' for the original Charleston Sternwheel Regatta. He was a talented guitar player who sometimes would sit in with local bands during their gigs, and as close friends could attest, could (and often did) sing every song that Mark Farner and Grand Funk Railroad ever recorded.

Jesse is predeceased by his beloved brother Brad, mother Fannie Elmore, and father Jesse Johnson, and is survived by his older brother Jess. He will be greatly missed, but forever loved by many, especially his devoted companion of many years Kathryn Kukura and his soul daughter and best friend Kristen Sayre, whom he helped raise. Jesse, Kathryn, and Kristen enjoyed many years together as a family, along with their series of cats Chloe, Jazmine, Hemingway, Tesla, and Squink- his favorite. He was very proud of Kristen's accomplishments and of being very influential in her career decision to attend the Bill Noe Flight School at Marshall University, of which she was a member of the inaugural, graduating class of 2024.

He was also very proud of his brother Jess Johnson, nephews Justin, Cole, and Matthew, niece Brook, close cousin Johnnie and wife Sallie. Also proud of his farm family headed by Greg Carroll, close friends and soul brothers Gary Zuckett, Joel Brown, Gary Brown, Tim Spears, Dickie Russell, and dear friends Charlotte Pritt, Mark Myers, and too many more to list here.

The family would like to give special thanks to: Jim Horn and Dr. Stephen Zekan for their care and friendship over the years, Dr. Michael Valente, his doctor and friend at the Cleveland Clinic, who respected and appreciated Jesse's wishes. While at the Clinic, Jesse had an attentive and caring staff, we are grateful for that.
Jesse would want you to read about the Battle of Blair Mountain, the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo, watch the documentary Collapse by Michael Ruppert, listen to music from Mark Farner and Grand Funk Railroad, watch movies with Errol Flynn, especially Captain Blood, and also the movies Out of Africa, Braveheart, and Jeremiah Johnson.

A Celebration of Jesse's Life will be held Sunday, April 27 from 2 to 6 p.m., at the Riverside shelter at Coonskin Park. Please bring your favorite dish to share. On time in time.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Charleston Gazette-Mail on Apr. 19, 2025.