Deborah Johnson

JOHNSON, Deborah Ann

Deborah Ann Johnson of Druid Hills, died May 18, 2024, at the age of 68. She is survived by her sister, Anita; daughter, Chana; husband, Jeff; and a score of relatives. She was born in Indiana, grew up in Michigan and moved to Atlanta in 1991. An independent thinker, she converted to Judaism as a teen. In Atlanta, she became a devoted member of Congregation Shearith Israel.

Her humanistic values led her to Antioch College and then to the Boston University Law School. She found her dream job at Legal Aid in Michigan. In 1991, she moved to Atlanta and became a staff attorney with Atlanta Legal Aid, a job and people she loved. She represented hundreds of people over 31 years here and continued to volunteer after she retired in 2022. She also became a mentor, trainer, county co-managing attorney and served on state-wide committees. Her scholarly perspective on law enabled her to become a co-author of the Georgia annual guide to marriage law.

An eclectic mix of personal interests included nature, which she especially enjoyed from the comfort of a rocking chair looking across her backyard to Fernbank Forest. She loved music, classical and folk. Her taste in reading ranged from religious topics to Victorian novels to murder mysteries. She hated all the bad news her husband found every day on the Internet. She was also generous with her time and money and was the anchor of her family.

She died from an unbeatable combination of malignant brain tumors and Parkinson's disease. Despite it all, she remained lucid, brave and grateful for all the help she got. She died peacefully just after she reached her self-defined DNR point. What a determined soul she had!

We thank a huge crowd of family, friends, neighbors, Legal Aid staff, synagogue members and strangers who were super-competent and compassionate. In addition, we thank all the staff at Kaiser, Emory-St. Joseph's, Emory-Decatur (including acute rehab), Winship Cancer Center, the Weinstein Hospice, the AMR ambulance teams and multiple independent therapists and health care aides.

Adios Deborah, gone but never to be forgotten.