Esther Marie Johnson

After a life of love for her husband, Duane and their five children, Esther Marie Johnson, age 87, died March 10, 2010. She went to heaven, to join her husband of 65 years. Raised in Fort Collins, Esther was born February 22, 1923, in Longmont, Colorado. Her parents, Wesley & Minnie Johnson, moved the family to Fort Collins when Esther was an infant. Her family farmed land on the Poudre River's south bank, where Timberline Road now crosses the stream. Her childhood home still stands in the Nix Natural Area. Esther's young life was ideal, filled with family, horses, the river, and such bountiful crops that she has no memory of the Great Depression. A Fort Collins High School graduate of 1941, Esther married her high school sweetheart, Duane Johnson on September 5, 1943, at the old First Baptist Church, a stone church still standing at the corner of Remington & Magnolia in Fort Collins. While starting a new life with her husband, her parents moved to a farm at the east end of Drake Road, where her father was killed in a farming accident in 1944. Esther was 8 months pregnant with her first child at the time. Esther was the Wife, the Mom, and the Woman that somehow managed to support her husband through college, build a house by nailing the board her man had cut, and lovingly raise five children of vastly different personalities. Esther and Duane did it all, together. After her four girls married, Esther opened a floral business, owning the Dutch Tulip for 15 years, arranging flowers for large weddings, to small corsages for prom. As her mother aged, she brought Minnie into her home for eight years, before her death in 1982. After her husband's retirement, Duane & Esther spent 27 years together enjoying family, flowers, gardening and traveling, including five vacations to Hawaii. Esther was the youngest of five children and was the last surviving of her siblings: Dorothy Coy, Edward Johnson, Helen Staley, and Evelyn Crane. Esther's husband of 65 years, Duane Johnson, died July 30, 2009. She is survived by their five children; Becky Sammons of Fort Collins, Nancy VanDamme of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Sandy Johns of Northglenn, Colorado, Janice Ribelin of Flagstaff, Arizona, and J.D. Johnson of Fort Collins. Esther was also blessed with 10 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. A Graveside Service will be held at 12 Noon, Friday, March 12, 2010, in Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins, Colorado.