Vernon O. Johnson

The following March he married Anne Beckwith Miller, in June graduated with a degree in economics, and in July joined the Army Air Corps.

The following year, he was accepted in a graduate program at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico to study economics, foreign affairs, and law.

[6] By the mid-1950s, anti-Communist influence of Senator Joe McCarthy, aided by the House Un-American Activities Committee led to the establishment of the Doolittle Report.

[12][13] Time-Life offered cameras, film and money to cover the trip, all refused by Johnson who sought independence abroad.

The bus went to Amsterdam,[16] and as Johnson went north to retrieve it, the family lived in a brothel in Verona awaiting his return.

[17][18] In Rome, the "Daily American" wrote "Vernon Johnson…is threatening to set the well-planned travel tour back 50 years"[19] and quoted Johnson with saying that with the US/USSR summit in Paris derailed by 1960 U-2 incident, "I was tempted to send [Khrushchev] a cable telling him to quit lousing up our trip".

That attracted the attention of Anita Ekberg of La Dolce Vita-fame, and prompted her to escort the family for a week in Rome,[20] She, her Italian actor boyfriend Franco Silva, her producer, secretary, and others painted 4-foot long permanent autographs on the side of the bus, creating a traveling autograph album for the next 17 months.

From Rome they went to France,[21] Belgium, Netherlands,[22] Germany, Denmark, Sweden,[23][24][25][26] Finland, Russia, Siberia, and Japan[27][28][29] detailed in the book Home is Where the Bus Is, written by his wife, Anne Beckwith Johnson.

In May 1960, shortly before a US-USSR summit planned in Paris, the American U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia, adding tension to relations.

[34] Four days later, the Soviet Union charged Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR in May, with espionage.

That week Johnson namedropped Khrushchev to authorities and successfully was issued a flat-car for the bus and tickets for 10 on the Railway.

In 1964, Johnson purchased the Oaks Hotel in Ojai, CA with a vision of creating an artist retreat [45] and family-like setting for teenagers.

In 1965, William Weatherford, an Episcopal minister, and Johnson joined Martin Luther King for the March on Selma.

[49] In 1966, Johnson began a short-lived "Utopian Community" on a large tract of land on Hollister Ranch between Refugio and Gaviota.

In 1979, during the Nicaraguan Revolution, Johnson went with a Red Cross team to bring medical supplies following the civil war.