Margie Joyce Johnson

Like the closing strains of one of the Irving Berlin melodies she loved, Margie Joyce Johnson slipped from this world to the next on October 3, 2025. What follows is the music of her life.
On March 2, 1930, Margie came into this world, a yellow rose against the rolling vistas and mesquite trees of Cisco, Texas. This small town on the central plains would play an important role in her life as it would be where she would meet her husband of 75 years, Don Delbert Johnson, and raise the family that would become her heart's devotion.
Born to Eugene Cisero Forbes and Zelma (Pierce) Forbes, Margie's entrance to the world completed the young family that had welcomed her older brother Truman only a few years earlier. The memory of her father and mother's unwavering love for each other became the blueprint from which Margie would craft her own family years later.
Summers spent surrounded by relatives on her grandparent's farm in Cross Plains not only shaped the woman that Margie would become but provided the mythic background for the stories of her youth that she lovingly shared throughout her life. If a story began with "I never will forget when " the listeners knew they were in store for the remembrance of a time that she held close to her heart. Through these accounts, she imparted years of family history to everyone lucky enough to be drawn into her confidence.
The East Texas oil boom drew the Forbes family east to the Piney Woods of Gladewater, Texas. It was there that Margie found lifelong friends and a love of music and the arts. Under the direction of the legendary musician and band leader Alto Tatum, Margie found her clear soprano voice and discovered a lifelong love of music that she would so carefully and intentionally imprint upon the hearts of her children and grandchildren.
Upon returning to Cisco in her senior year of high school, she met the love of her life, Don Delbert Johnson. They would marry and, in the years that followed, spend just shy of 76 years devoted to each other. One final move brought them east again to Athens, Texas. It was there that Don and Margie would put down roots a final time and build the home that would shelter them through their remaining years together.
A loving mother and grandmother, a devoted friend and faithful Christian, Margie was a pillar of both her community and her church. She created a home that extended beyond the property lines of her beautifully maintained yard and into the hearts of her three children, six grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. She instilled the values of kindness and generosity in her family through constant examples of her own practice.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, her son-in-law, and her husband.
Survivors include her children, Debbie Godwin of Athens, Russell Don Johnson of Athens, and Jim Johnson and spouse Bruce Ellerin of Tyler; her grandchildren, Dusty Godwin and spouse Jennifer, Dylan Godwin and partner Zac Haines, Brandon Johnson and spouse Lauren, Don Matthew Johnson and spouse Anna, Jeb Michael Johnson and spouse Megan, and Cristina Campbell and spouse Johnathan; and her great-grandchildren, Karson Godwin, Kaegan Godwin, Jaxon Johnson, Aiden Johnson, Callen Johnson, Payton Johnson, Maverick Johnson, Vinnie Johnson, Delaney Johnson, Ava Dawn Roberts, and Charlee Forbes Campbell.
To the very end, Margie was a bright light of faith and beauty. Her memory lives on in the hearts of those she touched throughout her long and well lived life.
"Days may not be fair always,
That's when I'll be there always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always,
Always."