Barbara C. Johnson

Barbara was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 13, 1935. Her parents were Jean and James Masterton. She was the youngest of their three children, having an older sister Janette and brother John. She attended Corstorphine Primary and Secondary school and graduated with a certificate in Pitman shorthand writing, which she used to gain her first job at the Pearl Assurance company on George Street in Edinburgh. Here at one of the company parties that involved American service men stationed at the nearby Kirknewton, Air Force base, she met her future husband, Kenneth Johnson. They were married at the local church in Broomfield on June 26, 1954, with special guests Byron and Barbara Johnson all the way from Kansas City.

Married to a non-commissioned officer in the USAF, she and the family were relocated every three years for the next 20 years. She lived in several European countries and various places within the U.S., however always tried to return to Great Britain whenever possible during these years. She and Kenneth had three children. Upon Kenneth’s retirement from the military, the family moved to the greater Kansas City area in 1972.

Always a full-time mom and for 20 years a military wife, she focused most her attentions on raising the children and coordinating most of the day-to-day activities of three boys. She returned to the workforce in the early 1970s, again relying on her office skills, at the headquarters office of the Alpha Delta Kappa teacher’s sorority before retiring in 2001.

She celebrated 69 years of marriage before Kenneth’s passing in 2022.

She enjoyed knitting, gardening, and painting and many of her landscapes were from her memories of Scotland and her various travels.

She is survived by her children, William Johnson (Mary Johnson), Glenn Johnson (Susan Johnson), and Stewart Johnson (Lisa Johnson), her sister Janette McLean, and her brother John Masterton. She had 8 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggest contributions to the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Research. https://www.komen.org