Julia Johnson

Julia Katherine Johnson was born on December 12, 1938 near Morganfield, Kentucky, the only child of Roberta and Ben Thomas.

She grew up in Evansville, Indiana, across the Ohio River from her birthplace. After attending Saint Mary of the Woods College and graduating from the University of Evansville in 1960, she became a flight attendant for Continental Airlines and moved to Hermosa Beach, California, where she enjoyed what would become classic jazz at The Lighthouse Café.

While working for Continental, she made frequent trips across the Pacific to Tokyo, even living briefly there in Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel. In the fall of 1963, she relocated to Chicago to be closer to her parents, as her father had developed cancer. The day she arrived in Chicago, she met Richard Lewis Johnson, a U. S. Marine, and, a little less than a year later, she married him on August 31, 1963. She would remain married to him until his death on March 10, 2017. They had three boys – T. R. in 1964, Clark in 1967, Ben in 1970. In January of 1968, the family moved to Louisville.

"Julie" was a proud, happy, and brilliant home-maker, raising her boys on good books and gourmet meals cooked from scratch, cheering for them in their athletic endeavors and hobbies, their academic progress, and eventual careers. Once the youngest reached middle school, she went to work with her husband as they opened a business brokerage together.

She delighted in her success in making deals, ultimately becoming president of the International Business Broker's Association and a high-demand consultant for people developing similar ventures in Germany. In 2005, they retired. As widely as Julie and her husband traveled over the next decade in Europe and the Caribbean, her favorite trips were to Portland, Oregon to visit her youngest son and his family, especially his two boys. She also took no end of joy in her two granddaughters, who lived nearby, and with whom she shared "adventures" at least a few times a week.

She also made countless visits to New Orleans where her oldest son would take her to restaurants for meals that became memories they savored ever after. Soon after celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary in Tuscany, Rome, and along the Amalfi Coast, her husband's health began to fail, and she devoted herself to his care for his final four years.

She loved all cats and some dogs (Airedales and miniature Schnauzers), murder mysteries, and true-crime books; she also loved dinner parties, fried chicken, and Louisville. She had many great friends over the years, and even celebrated her 87th birthday by having lunch with her kindergarten "bestie," with whom she'd been close friends every step of the way; less than two weeks later, she was rushed to a hospital from a family Christmas gathering and died soon after, on December 29, 2025.

She was preceded in death by her husband and parents; and survived by her three sons, a daughter-in-law, four grandchildren and a tuxedo cat named Delma.