Jonathan Small

Jonathan Dunstanville Small, son of Edwin Dunstanville Small and Ruby Viola Small, entered the world on December 17, 1973 at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. Edwin and Ruby had seven children. Jonathan, or “Johnny”, as he was affectionately called, was the second of two children born to them after they migrated from Jamaica to the United States in the late 1960’s. He was a big baby boy and since his birth, he failed to live up to his surname - “Small”. Weighing in at 10 pounds 11 ounces, this was no small baby! As a child, Johnny loved to read. On a typical school day, after school ended and most children went outside to play or watched TV, Johnny would read the newspaper or a magazine. Always on a quest for knowledge, he could join almost any conversation intelligently. One of Johnny’s reading teachers shared with his parents her observation of his love for reading. In her classroom, the walls were lined with shelves of books. The teacher explained that, unless she assigned reading material, most students did not initiate reading these books. However, Johnny would stop in the middle of an assignment to read one of those books. She acknowledged that, while other teachers may have reprimanded him for doing this, she had to remind herself that her purpose as a reading teacher was to get students to read. Johnny always completed his reading assignments, so she left him alone. She further indicated that she ‘wished all her students were like him.’ Although Johnny was the last child, he was not spoiled. He was compassionate, and though he participated in his fair share of teasing, he was not bullyish. He would defend those less fortunate and easily placed others before himself. Johnny had setbacks in his teenage and early adult years, but he was driven and never stopped his quest to be successful in life. He wanted to be his own boss and he also had an interest in creating jobs for others. He was a man on a mission! Johnny enrolled in trucking school and successfully completed his course of study and subsequently received his commercial driver’s license to become a truck driver. He learned everything he could about the trucking business and after approximately a year of working for someone else, Johnny decided to purchase his own truck and became what is known in the trucking industry as an owner-operator. This was the start of Johnny fulfilling his dream of owning his own business. A few weeks after purchasing his brand new truck, Johnny had an incident where his truck went over an embankment while driving up a mountain during a snowstorm. The truck was totaled and he was unarmed. This did not deter him. He immediately took on the insurance company and secured another truck. In less than five years, Johnny had five trucks on the road and was in the process of obtaining two more trucks. He hired operators to drive these trucks, thus fulfilling his second goal of providing jobs for others. On the morning of September 3, 2017, as Johnny drove his sister’s car along I-95 near Interstate 84, a car driving at an extremely high speed, slammed into the rear of his vehicle and it burst into flames. According to the Broward Medical Examiner, Johnny sustained massive chest injuries from the force of the impact and it appeared that his passing was immediate. Johnny never married and had no children. He is survived by his mother - Ruby Small; four sisters - Marie Knowles, Sharon Small, Jannet Francis, and Ruth Ferguson; nieces - Faith Crawford, Allison Knowles-Taylor, Kaye Knowles and Jodi-Ann Ferguson; nephews - Nicholas Francis, Rodney Small, Dwayne Ferguson, Duane Small, and Zachary Francis; grand nieces - Sezja Crawford, Addis Francis, Naeemah Francis and Egypt Francis; grand nephews - Zaire Francis, Solomon Crawford and Ethan Christie; aunts - Lucille Simons and Elaine Stephenson; uncle James Stephenson; and in-laws - Norman Ferguson, Akil Crawford and Stephonie Francis. Also remaining to mourn his departure are a host of cousins, adopted family members and friends. Jonathan Small - son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, friend, entrepreneur, and employer - we will miss your presence, old school ways, jokes, kindness and compassion. When his father, the late Edwin Small, passed away in 2001, Johnny provided the following quote for his father’s eulogy, which is also befitting for him: “One of the classics who we hope will be emulated but can never be duplicated” -- Jonathan D. Small