Rex Johnson

A storyteller who loved people and loved to share the gospel, Rex S Johnson passed away Tuesday, September 26th, 2023, surrounded by his family at home in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Rex blessed his family with his guidance and direction and blessed so many lives as a patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among his many leadership positions. Rex was born in Ogden, Utah, but was raised in McCall, Idaho where his mother, Naoma Stephens and father, Kenneth Johnson reside having preceded him in death.
Patriarch Johnson was a faithful missionary and enjoyed sharing stories of his many experiences and relating them to the gospel mission. In fact, it was his missionary service in England that brought him the love of his life, Susan Christine Aubery, whom he both honored and adored for sixty years. Together, they served missions proselyting in Upstate New York and as ordinance workers in the Ogden Temple.
Having trained as a forester, Rex loved the surrounding nature and settled first in Sandpoint, Idaho where he was blessed with six children, the youngest, Faith Christine living a very short time before preceding him in death. Michelle, Royce, Suzette, Jared, and Aaron all survive and continue to support their mother during this difficult time. As a woodland forester in Bonner County, Idaho, he connected with many unique and wonderful people, whom he helped excel as stewards of the land. Eventually, he transferred to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and then on to Cheyenne, Wyoming where he retired from the calling he loved so dearly.
Once retired, he lived all over the country and beyond supporting Susan in her career and providing full- time care to his mother-in-law, Doreen Aubery and his father Kenneth Johnson for sixteen years. Time in Austin, Texas, Bakersfield, California, and Manchester, England brought many challenges and opportunities to share the gospel through his everyday comings and goings. His best successes came as he grocery shopped with his treasured pet, Pepper, who he claimed was the very best missionary companion.
So kind and loving in his manner, he couldn't help but reach out and converse for hours with anyone who was his neighbor, friend, or passerby. All these wonderful encounters filled his experience with rich and amazing details of genuinely unique personalities and situations that became the sources of his stories, songs, and poems. Hiking, reading, skiing on Payette Lake and at Brundage Ski Area, and studying the gospel of Jesus Christ were his most treasured hobbies. Very few of those meeting Rex for the first time missed out on a gift of wisdom or a scriptural passage.
Rex will be missed by all the many friends and family whose lives were blessed by him during his sojourn here on Earth. His brother, Morris Johnson, his parents, and a host of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances precede him in death. His five children and their spouses, nineteen grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, his brothers Ben Johnson, Eugene Bingham, and his sister, Kim Bingham Bassett, all miss him greatly.
Family and friends may attend a viewing Saturday, September 30, 2023 from 10:30 – 11:30 in the Olpin Family Mortuary Chapel, 494 South 300 East, Pleasant Grove, Utah. Graveside services will follow the viewing at 12:00 noon in the Highland City Cemetery.
Condolences may be sent to the family at www.olpinmortuary.com.