Pure poetry: Local centenarian feted several times over

Turning 100 doesn’t happen every day.

But, in the case of Joyce Johnson, celebrating the rare milestone hasn’t been limited to a single date on the calendar.

She has too many friends and admirers for that.

They have gathered recently for a series of parties and receptions, including one at La Conner Civic Garden Club last Thursday in honor of Johnson, who has taken the Hollywood ideal of It’s a Wonderful Life a step further.

For her, it’s been a beautiful life – one full of beautiful flowers, poetry and memories.

She shares many of those memories, beginning with her childhood in North Dakota, in a collection of heartfelt poems now available in book form.

Johnson’s 158-page “Lifetime Memories in Verse” has been hailed as “writings (that) are relatable to the everyday person.”

Remarkably, Johnson was past 80 when she first delved into poetry, doing so to relieve grief stemming from the passing of her only son.

After years as a widely acclaimed floral designer, the avid gardener turned her focus toward personal growth. Her emergence as a poet meant she had to master that ultimate 21st century contraption, the computer.

It has enabled her to post on the Poetry Soup website, among other outlets, thus planting seeds for what has become “Lifetime Memories in Verse.”

“This book of poetry,” explains the twice widowed Johnson, “is made up of rhymes and thoughts that I have written down in the last 20 years of my life. They are memories of my early life and laments about my advanced age and a bit about my surroundings and family.”

It’s quite a story to tell.

Johnson was born July 7, 1918. World War I was still raging in Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire would soon dissolve. John E. Hoover was about to change his name to J. Edgar Hoover.

It’s been said and written that Johnson has lived through the Great Depression, two world wars, the Korean conflict, Vietnam and recessions both major and minor.

She left North Dakota in 1941 for Detroit, ultimately following family members to Washington state. She had been here a decade before embarking in 1953 on a 30-year career with radio station KBRC in Mount Vernon.

Johnson treated herself to a European retirement trip, then launched a second career, with H&R Block, that covered a 10-year span.

Many in La Conner are perhaps more familiar with her tireless efforts on behalf of local, district and state garden clubs – all intended to promote the aesthetic and therapeutic beauty of flowers.

Today she is fondly referred to as the queen of the La Conner club’s butterfly garden.

Johnson is also known locally for having been a member of the original citizens group dedicated to restoring the historic Pleasant Ridge School building east of town. When, at the behest of Pleasant Ridge Cemetery Commissioners, a new campaign to save the local landmark was initiated earlier this year, Johnson attended an informational meeting at La Conner Middle School.

Shortly thereafter she penned a poetic tribute to the old Pleasant Ridge School that was read aloud at the cemetery on Memorial Day, and published two days later in the La Conner Weekly News.

More recently, Johnson has been making the rounds of 100th birthday parties here, at home near La Conner and in Mount Vernon.

At a celebration hosted by Salem Lutheran Church, the tables were turned somewhat as those attending were invited to write poetry about Johnson.

It was a beautiful gesture acknowledging someone who knows a thing or three about beauty.