Mary Edith Johnson, 77, of Wellington, Texas, passed away on March 24, 2025.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 7, 2025, at First Methodist Church of Wellington. A reception for family and friends will immediately follow the service.
Interment will be a memorial service at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 5, 2025, at First United Methodist Church of Richardson, Texas.
Mary Edith Robinson Johnson was born Feb. 27, 1948, in Dallas, Texas, to JD and Aline Robinson, of Garland, Texas. Mary grew up in Garland and graduated from Garland High School in 1966 as salutatorian of her class.
Mary was an exceptionally talented musician, and from her early childhood, music was one of her passions. Her mother served as a piano teacher and church musician, and Mary followed in her footsteps. Throughout her life, she played piano at church and school.
An accomplished vocalist as well, Mary’s voice was clear, pure and true. She had such a wide vocal range that she could sing virtually any female choral part. Appropriately, she was an All-State choir member in both her junior and senior years of high school. Also blessed with perfect pitch, she often gave pitch to her various a cappella ensembles. In short, as either an accompanist or vocalist, Mary was a choir director’s dream.
Mary earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Baylor University in 1970. While at Baylor, she was a professional accompanist and sang in both the Baylor Chamber Singers and the Baylor A Capella Choir. It was in the latter, where she met her love and soulmate, Jamie.
Mary and Jamie married on May 23, 1971, in Garland, after which they set off on a three-year-long adventure while Jamie served as an officer in the United States Navy. They lived in Charleston, S.C.; on Guam, Marianas Islands; and in Bremerton, Wash.—home ports for Jamie’s ship. From these home bases, they roamed the Carolinas; traveled to Nepal, India, Thailand and Japan; and backpacked the Olympic and North Cascade mountains.
The couple returned to Texas in 1974, living first in Plano, and then, in Austin, where Katie and Molly were born. In 1981, they moved to Wellington.There they designed and built their home, had Colin and made the life together that they had always dreamed of.
Mary taught piano to local children and teens in the early 1980s. She began her career as a schoolteacher in the late 1980s, teaching at Samnorwood Elementary School, Wellington Elementary School and Wellington Junior High School, until she retired from teaching in 2006. Mary served as the pianist at First United Methodist Church in Wellington throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.
In addition to her love of music, Mary was an avid reader and worker of crossword puzzles. She took up the game of Bridge after she retired and was a member of “The Bees.” Mary also loved to travel. She and Jamie traveled the world together, fostering that same love in their children. They most loved to travel by car. They visited 49 of the 50 states, with several road trips of over 6,000 miles.
In 2016, they began an annual pilgrimage to Montreal, Canada, where they would stay each year in the late summer months in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) neighborhood.
Mary was preceded in death by her parents, JD and Aline Robinson, and her father and motherin- law, O.V. and Wandell Johnson.
Those left to honor and cherish her memory include her husband, Jamie Johnson; daughter Katie Barron and husband Joel; daughter Molly Johnson; son Colin Johnson and wife Kelley; grandchildren Drew Barron, Alex Barron, James Johnson and Maddy Johnson; and brother Richard Robinson and wife Minnie; along with her siblings-in-law, nieces, nephews and many friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions be made to the American Cancer Society or the Wellington Opportunity Center, P.O. Box 122, Wellington, TX 79095.
