Carolyn Keyes Johnson
Carolyn Keyes Johnson, a longtime Point Reyes resident who had a way with words, a knack with kids and a green thumb, passed away earlier this month. She was 91.
"Just take a second, write a note," Carolyn often told her daughter Annie. "If you have an opportunity to give, don't walk by-give, and if you have an opportunity to love, let it happen."
Carolyn was born July 19, 1916 in her parents Berkeley home, the third of four children. She attended high school in Berkeley and graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1938 with a degree in psychology and a minor in English.
Even back then Berkeley was "a little bit left of center," said daughter Annie.
At age 23, Carolyn married Burton Johnson and the couple moved to a small farming town in the Central Valley where Burt taught school. Carolyn often corrected the student's lessons and tipped her husband on grammar.
Burt was in the military but remained in the country. During this time Carolyn was a secretary for one Major Ginsberg, who praised her for her wit.
Later, the couple settled in Richmond and Carolyn returned to school to get a teaching credential. The couple raised two children, Annie and Richard.
Carolyn instructed Sunday school and later taught troubled teen mothers, going home to home to meet her students. She took them to the beach, the zoo and museums.
"She was bent on breaking the circle of disparity and believed creating experiences for the young women had potential for changing their circumstances," said Annie.
Carolyn joined the American Field Service, a youth international exchange program and kids from Africa, Japan and poorer sections of Richmond frequented the family house.
"You never knew who would show up at the Johnson's for dinner," said Annie.
The family spent a lot of time outdoors and camped often at Camp Taylor. In the late 1980s Burt and Carolyn moved to West Marin fulltime, taking a home Annie had previously owned in Point Reyes Station.
"They were both very fond of being outdoors and nature and gardens," said Annie. Carolyn cultivated a diverse orchard near their home, which included apple and pear trees. She made apple sauce and apple cake.
In the early 1990s she was president of the Inverness Garden Club and helped set up gardens at the library and the Dance Palace. During the Western Weekend parade she arranged for kids to give out bouquets of posies.
"It was her unbridled enthusiasm that made sure it happened," said friend and fellow garden club member Trish Johnson.
During this time she wrote often, in letters to friends, and also short stories. In her 80s she even crafted a novel, a book about her sister who married a German journalist just before World War II broke out. The young lovers move to China to escape the war.
Many of Carolyn's letters went to friends who wrote her for advice and others are musings never read by anyone. One rather elegant reflection Carolyn wrote during the 1970s which Annie recently discovered in a box in her mother's attic reads:
"I have narrowed things down a lot. There are some things in human living that are important. Top on the list are relationships. They need to be worked at. Next is acts of love (sic). Love is only an empty four letter word until there is an act. People give gifts or give phone calls. People take soup over to a sick friend, or people write a letter, or a note."
(Published in the Point Reyes Light on March 13, 2008)
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