Beverly Johnson

Beverly May Johnson passed away in Baldwin City on September 16, 2019. She was born on June 20, 1945 to Othie and Lillian "Bernice" Carpenter Johnson and was raised on the family farm in Clearfield, Kansas. Two years later, she was joined by her brother Harold.

Growing up, she was a member of the Jolly Juniors 4-H Club that met at the Black Jack School and the Clearfield Methodist Church youth group. She attended Baldwin schools and graduated from Baldwin High School with the class of 1963.

After graduation, she took some correspondence courses and joined the work force. First she worked as a waitress at a cafe in Baldwin and then as a caregiver at the Orchard Lane Nursing Home. She later worked at Standard Life Insurance in Lawrence, Dot in Gardner, Daisy Electronics in Gardner, and Hire Boot Company in Ottawa. It was during these early years of adulthood that she bought a 1965 Mustang to drive to work and acquired a Honda motorcycle for day trips. One especially memorable one involved Bev and her mother Bernice riding the motorcycle all the way to Amsterdam, Missouri to visit Bernice’s sister Beulah. She took bus trips with the church women and enjoyed spending time with her friends. In addition, she began her extensive record collection and especially loved music by Elvis Presley, Conway Twitty, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers.

When her nieces came along, Aunt Bev took pride in keeping up with their activities in the newspapers, playing board games with them, and being the chauffeur for their day trips into Wellsville and Ottawa with Grandma Bernice.

In her later adult life, Bev was a caregiver for the elderly in the community, doing light housework and providing transportation and companionship when they couldn’t leave their homes. She always had a soft spot for cats, and when one of her employers moved to a nursing and couldn’t take her beloved cat, Trixie the cat came home with Bev.

In 1999, soon after the death of her mother, Bev moved to Eudora where she lived until moving to Topeka in 2007. In these years, she had more time for reading books and magazines and doing word puzzles.

The time came this summer for her move closer to family, and her move to Dunn’s Vista was orchestrated by her family. It came as a shock, when after only a week, it was discovered she was suffering from the late stages of advanced cancer. Within a week, she was released from her suffering, surrounded by her family in Baldwin.

She was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her brother Harold Johnson and his wife Barbara, her niece Tamara Lamb and her husband Robby, her niece Melissa Bryan and her husband Jason, great nieces and great nephews Silas, Oscar, Clara, and Amos Lamb, Gracie, Ian, and Abigail Bryan, as well as many cousins with whom she grew up.

Funeral Services will be 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, September 24, 2019, at St. John’s United Church of Christ, 396 E. 900 Rd, Baldwin City, KS. Burial will follow at Clearfield Cemetery, 602 E 2200 Rd, Eudora, KS. Ms. Johnson’s family will receive friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday, September 23, 2019 at Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, Baldwin City.

The family suggests memorial contributions be made to Clearfield Cemetery, c/o Lamb-Roberts Funeral Home, P.O. Box 64, Baldwin City, Kansas 66006. Condolences may be sent to the family through www.lamb-roberts.com