Clarinda K. Johnson

JOHNSON, CLARINDA K. Clarinda Keir Johnson, 91, of Somerset and Monument Beach, Massachusetts, and Tavares, Florida, died of natural causes on Friday, August 25th, in her Somerset home. She was married to the late Harry Agnew Johnson for 55 years, and together they raised four children. Mrs. Johnson was an upbeat, intelligent, and optimistic woman, with a knack for lifting the spirits of those around her. Before starting her family, Mrs. Johnson had careers as a Navy Lieutenant and as an elementary school teacher and reading specialist. She had a flair for telling stories of her youth, and often spoke of the period during World War II in which she was one of very few women on her base in California. She gleefully remembered many flights as a passenger in open cockpit biplanes, including daredevil flights under the Golden Gate Bridge, as her pilot friends logged their required flight time. Born August 11, 1915, in Everett, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of the late Clarence Leo Keir and the late Jessie Lulu (Gould) Keir, and sister of the late Reverend C. Malcolm Keir and the late Kenneth Keir. She was a member of the Methodist Church in Everett and graduated from Everett High School. She received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Boston University, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta and Scarlet Key honor society. After graduating from Boston University, she taught for four years, first in Tiverton, Rhode Island, where she loved riding her bicycle on the country roads, and then in Verona, New Jersey. After the start of the war, she joined the Navy and achieved the rank of lieutenant. Following the war, she and her husband settled in Somerset, where she maintained a residence until her death. In her later years, Mrs. Johnson spent winters in Tavares, Florida, and summers in Monument Beach, Massachusetts. She was active in the Congregational Christian Church of Somerset, Order of the Eastern Star, Somerset Women's Club, and was a volunteer with the American Red Cross, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts of America as a Cub Scout den mother. She and her husband were avid square dancers, gardeners, boaters, campers, and theater-goers. They took up Nordic skiing in their sixties, and in their seventies they sailed to Florida to spend the winter on their 28-foot Pearson Triton sloop before sailing back to New England the following year. Mrs. Johnson loved to play piano and was known for her artful flower arrangements and her apple pies. For many decades, she met with the Jolly Girls every Thursday and continued to meet with them as often as possible until her death. In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by her daughter, Harriet Burkhardt. She is survived by three children, Katherine Dyrenforth and her husband John of Chocorua, New Hampshire, Elizabeth Johnson of Providence, Rhode Island, and the Reverend Douglas Johnson and his wife Anne of Somerset, Massachusetts; five grandchildren, Keir Loranger of Key West, Florida, Benjamin Loranger of North Carolina, Sarah Bennett of Flat Lick, Kentucky, CPT David Dyrenforth of Newtonville, Massachusetts, and 2LT Thomas Dyrenforth of Ft. Sill, Oklahoma; one great-grandchild, Caleb Bennett of Flat Lick, Kentucky; and several nieces and nephews, including Elizabeth Keir of Berkeley, California. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 5th, at Congregational Christian Church of Somerset, with the Reverend Gregory Baker officiating and a collation to follow in the church's Fellowship Hall. Interment will be at 3:00 p.m. at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne with military honors present. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Congregational Christian Church of Somerset, First Presbyterian Church of Mt. Dora, or the Audubon Society (national or local). Arrangements are by Hathaway Community Home for Funerals in Somerset, Massachusetts.