Mary Ellen Johnson

Mrs. Mary Ellen Johnson nee Ferguson passed away in the early morning hours of Friday, February 27, 2026, at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston after a brief series of medical maladies which began last September.

Mary Ellen was born February 3, 1949, in Quincy to Willis Talbot and Mary Ellen (Will) Ferguson. She was a quiet, demure and happy child, who along with her slightly older brother were watched over by their somewhat older sister. The family enjoyed many pets growing up with Mary Ellen's final one being a stray dog from a visit to her ancestral home named Barney, who lived a comfortable life in Wollaston for many years.

Mary Ellen was educated in Quincy, where teasing and bullying could be constant issue as she passed through high school, but was made easier with the support of a couple good friends, Duncan and Sybil. The girls made their own troupe and had many laughs, which bonded them. In her youth, Mary Ellen learned to not take herself too seriously and tried to make everyone feel at ease with a self-deprecating joke about herself or some comedic thing she might have done and used this skill in her life. Mary Ellen enjoyed Pepsi early on and her father, before his passing, was so shocked when later in life she made a major shift from this to Gingerale and finally Schwepps Diet Gingerale. She was never a fan of milk or coffee though.

Mary Ellen was a very apt pupil doing well in high school, which helped her to join The First National Bank of Boston where, without a college degree, she climbed the corporate ladder and eventually earned the title of senior manager of Special Compensation and Overseas Payroll within the department, which was a satisfying and sometimes grueling 33+ year career for her. She retired in 2001, as the bank went through one of many mergers and the bank became Bank of America. She fondly remembers friendships made via associations over her working career with Linda Antonelli, June Stonkus, Ginny Moylan, Dottie Harris, Ron Edes, Mary Ellen Healy, Donna Zinna, and Sherwin Miller.

Mary Ellen married Richard Armas Johnson, a fellow coworker in the Payroll Department, Apr 1977 in Quincy, surprising some of her coworkers who were unaware they were even dating. They settled in the home next to where her maternal grandmother, Ethel Will, founded the first nursing home in Wollaston. April 2027 would have been Richard and Mary Ellen's 50th anniversary.

When not working, she dearly enjoyed all aspects of spending time with her family members. She hosted holiday meals at her home for family and friends and opened her home to visiting family members from Texas and Vermont, while trying to cater to their every need by providing favorite foods or excursions to sights around New England.

Mary Ellen also enjoyed traveling to her maternal family vacation farmhouse in Vermont and spending time with her cousins from the area, a tradition started before she was born, but which all of her immediate family also enjoyed. Her high school friends had occasionally made the 3+ hour jaunt from Massachusetts as well as other friends over the years and her nieces and nephew, who has brought his family in recent years. There was a calm in the country for Mary Ellen she could not find in Wollaston and the air and food seem to taste better. Much laughter and joy was shared with many during those visits.

After retirement, Mary Ellen dedicated herself to being available to elderly family members and friends, accompanying them to doctor appointments and food shopping excursions on a weekly basis, as well as a visit to a local restaurant of choice. It seems Mary Ellen's favorite food item was chicken, as she seem to seek that out very often, in all its forms, but most especially in later years as Chicken Supreme from the Chateau restaurant chain.

Besides helping friends and family, Mary Ellen was bitten by the genealogy bug, after Sherwin introduced her to some automated features to record such information and then she was hooked. Hours were lost in research and finding interesting tales to share with her older sister and others who were interested in hearing of such things. She always tried to be as thorough as she had been in her working life with these genealogical matters, but it gave her a challenge, which she enjoyed. Mary Ellen was always battling to dwindle down her scraps of note papers on genealogy research only to get rid of one paper and develop five more.

Mary Ellen came to the cell phone late in life after her elder sister became concerned of her driving everywhere without a way to summon help in the case of an emergency, so she started with a flip phone that eventually gave way to a smart phone and the guttural sounds of frustrations when it did not behave in a logical manner, a similar episode with new computer technology on her personal computer. She learned to enjoy a couple games on them as well: WordScape and Wordle. These games presented their own form of amusement and challenge.

Mary Ellen is survived by her husband, Richard Johnson of Wollaston, brother, Stephen (Linda) Ferguson of San Antonio, Texas, nephew, Michael (Kimberly) Ferguson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, niece, Heather (Sid) St. Onge of San Antonio, Texas, as well as cousins, Lois (Ferguson) Pothier of Hingham, Cindy (Ralph) Orr of South Ryegate, Vermont, Kathy (Robert) Creaser of St Johnsbury, Vermont, Allen (Linda) Will of San Diego, California, and cousin-in-law, Sandra Thompson of Quincy, as well as various friends and neighbors.

Mary Ellen's parents, Willis and Mary Ferguson, her sister, Barbara Jean Ferguson and a younger brother, Willis Talbot Ferguson Jr, as well as her niece, Katherine Joyce Ferguson, predeceased her.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Quincy Animal Shelter at 99 Quarry St, Quincy, MA 02169 for her love of her dogs OR to an organization of your own choosing which you believe Mary Ellen would have supported.

A private burial will be held graveside within the family plot at Mt Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy.