Landry Johnson
Appearances
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
Okay. Well, first I just want to say my name is Landry Johnson. I'm a sophomore at the University of Oklahoma. And now I'm going to just give a little back story. So when I was 15, my father, Noah Orlando Johnson, passed away to suicide very abruptly. During this time, I was 15 and my older brother was 17. Obviously, we're getting ready to go off to college.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
And it was definitely just a lot going on. Not only did my father take his own life, before taking his life, he shot my stepmom six times. And just during this time, it was very hard financially, mentally, in every single way. Trauma. Yeah, it was a lot going on all at once, especially for a 15-year-old girl.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
We were also traveling back to and from Oklahoma to Texas to see my stepmom while she was in the hospital. We were definitely very much there for her a lot of it. But obviously, hospital bills and all the things like that, it was a lot. We found out my dad didn't have life insurance.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
He also didn't have a will of any sort, which just left me and my brother and my stepmom just in a very hard place because my brother, Christopher and I were both getting ready to go off to college and we didn't really have those funds set up because we weren't expecting this to just happen. No one was expecting him to just do what he did. Um,
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
So my brother and I immediately just started looking for scholarships and things like that once we got our heads in the right space. My brother is now at Texas State, and I'm at, obviously, the University of Oklahoma. But during our research, we found a website called Life Happens.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
And through this website, it has a bunch of different scholarships for kids who have lost parents that didn't have life insurance. And one of those companies is called Zander Insurance, which is the company that so gratefully and graciously gave me my scholarship and the scholarship that I got with them, I get it every year. So it's reoccurring.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
Um, and it's actually the scholarship that puts me to where I need to be. So I don't have to take out any student loans and I'm debt free from college because of the scholarship, which is truly just a blessing. Yeah. So not only has it opened doors for education, community, meeting people, it's put me in a place where, um,
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
my situation as losing my father isn't going to define my future based off that.
The Ramsey Show
It’s Our 2024 Annual Giving Show!
I'm studying healthcare administration with a minor in marketing.