Bradenton champion known for blues festival, public market dies

Johnette Isham was remembered as a leader who didn't let a challenge get in the way.

By Amanda Postma
| 5:00 p.m. August 8, 2023
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Johnette Isham was a driving force behind a number of projects that helped Bradenton get on the track of becoming a vibrant community.

Manatee-Sarasota

Even a pandemic couldn't stop Johnette Isham from continuing her mission of creating a vibrant community out of downtown Bradenton.

One of her most notable achievements as founding executive director of Realize Bradenton, a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing the city, was creating the Bradenton Blues Festival. But when COVID-19 rolled around, and social distancing dominated events, Isham didn’t let it stop the community from convening. Instead she found a way to move the festival to a park.

“Johnette always knew how to look at (an) opportunity and then work within the scope of what she had to do,” Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown says. “She led from behind the scenes. Stuff got done with nobody knowing how it got done, but it’s because Johnette was the leader.”