Jeanette S. Johnson

Jeanette Johnson Obituary Jeanette Ethel Smith Johnson, June 15, 1932- April 27, 2025
Jeanette Johnson, 92, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, passed away at home on April 27, 2025. She was the daughter of the late Earl Edward Smith and Alma Wilhelmina Droste Smith. Her husband of sixty-five years, William 'Bill' Brooks Johnson, predeceased her in 2019. Her survivors include five children: Lynette Blackmon (Bruce) of Charlotte, North Carolina; Jeffrey Brooks Johnson (Mary Jane) of San Clemente, California; Lysbeth Gordon (David) of Olympia, Washington; Dr. Jeremy Johnson of Helena, Montana, and Jason Johnson (Alyssa) of Carlsbad, California; six grandchildren, Christopher Blackmon (Christina), Michael Blackmon (Katie), Jennifer Johnson, Joshua Brooks Johnson, Kasia Johnson, and Cole Johnson; and three great-grandchildren, Nico Blackmon, Maria Blackmon, and Clara Blackmon.
Jeanette was born on June 15, 1932, in Toledo, Ohio, at Flower Hospital, an auspicious start to life because of her lifelong love of wildflowers. As a child, she was creative, adored pets, liked to dance ballet, read, and, especially, loved to garden. Jeanette graduated from Toledos DeVilbiss High School in June 1950. In December 1953, she received a bachelor's degree from Denison University where she majored in Biology and was a member of the Chi Omega Sorority. She was a junior year selection to Phi Beta Kappa and especially enjoyed her botany classes with Professor Harry Truman. Jeanette had an encyclopedic knowledge of perennial wildflowers and could usually immediately identify even the rarest varieties in both English and Latin.
She met her husband, Bill, at Denison, and they married on December 28, 1953. While Bill attended law school at Ohio State University, Jeanette worked as a research assistant and then associate for Dr. Milton A. Lessler at Ohio State in 1954 and 1955, studying the effects of what was then considered low-level radiation. This was the height of the McCarthy era investigations, and Jeanette could tell illuminating anecdotes of the worries and fears many shared during that era.
Jeanette became a full-time homemaker and mother, having five children over a twenty-one-year timespan. She said being a mother was her most important job, and she dedicated an enormous amount of time to caring, nurturing, and protecting her children and supporting their endeavors and interests. Indeed, Jeanette was defined by her innate compassion for so many, including the young, girls and women, older adults, animals, and plants. When the family's Siamese cats in the 1960s contracted an unknown virus, Jeanette made great efforts to nurse the animals back to health. Her efforts eventually led to them being some of the first cats diagnosed with the feline leukemia virus around 1970 when a diagnostic test was developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. When her mother became ill and incapacitated during the 1990s, Jeanette strove to care for her. When her husband's worsening peripheral neuropathy during the 2000s and 2010s eventually left him completely bed bound, she devoted herself to caring for him, which allowed him to remain at home as he wished with only a few short hospitalizations.
Jeanette followed her husband's career, and they lived in Columbus, Ohio, Sylvania, Ohio, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Englewood, Ohio near Dayton before finally settling in Malvern in 1969. She was ahead of the curve by decades, refusing to use herbicides on the lawn and converting much of the yard into a garden. She actively volunteered in schools, including successfully advocating for introducing a more rigorous scientific curriculum in the Northmont School District. Jeanette worked as a substitute teacher in Northmont during the 1960s and the Great Valley School District in the early 1970s, where she also taught summer school. She was a member and officer in the local chapter of the League of Women Voters during the 1970s and early 1980s. Jeanette served as a Malvern Public Library Board of Trustees member from East Whiteland Township during the 1990s. She owned a craft business with her friend Pat Lutz and happily sold dried flower crafts at fairs from the late 1970s to early 1990s. She enjoyed participating in a neighborhood bridge club for several decades. Jeanette was a member of the Paoli United Methodist Church and a lifelong Methodist. She liked Wesleyan hymns and always preferred old-fashioned Methodist services and forms of communion. She said she felt fortunate to be able to live a good and happy life. All who knew her also say they are happier and better people from the experience. A memorial service in celebration of her life will be held at the convenience of the family. To plant a beautiful memorial tree in memory of Jeanette, please visit our Tree Store.