Billy Johnson (Mormon)
Ghanaian Mormon leader
Joseph William Billy Johnson (17 December 1934 – 27 March 2012) was one of the first converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Ghana, and was one of the first stake patriarchs in the country. Prior to his baptism, he had worked for many years to spread the doctrines of the LDS Church to many of his fellow countrymen. He was baptized six months after the 1978 Revelation on Priesthood and among the first to be baptized in the church in Ghana.
Church leadership prior to baptism
Johnson was born in Lagos, Nigeria on 17 December 1934. He described his upbringing as Catholic and was a reverend in the Church of the Lord (Aladura). He also worked as an import officer for metal industries. In 1964, Johnson learned about the Book of Mormon from Frank A. Mensah. After receiving a copy of the Book of Mormon, Johnson and Mensah preached from the book and started "Latter-day Saint" congregations in Ghana, independent from any other Mormon sect. Mesnah delegated leadership of the Cape Coast congregation to Johnson, while he led the group in Accra and Rebecca Mould led a group in Sekondi-Takoradi. Their Brigham Young Educational Institute was a primary school in Bubiashie.
“Billy Johnson (Mormon)” enters the record as ghanaian Mormon leader. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Billy, Johnson and Mormon can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4912804. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2012, 1978 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “Billy Johnson (Mormon)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.