Marian Elizabeth Johnston

Marian Elizabeth Johnston, 98, of Fayetteville and Stuttgart, Ark., died on March 16, 2019, at the Health Care Center of Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville after a six-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease. She was preceded in death by her husband Theodore H. "Ted" Johnston; her parents Frederick J. and Lydia Josephine Swanson of Mead, Neb.; brother Walter and sister Margaret Swanson also of Mead; and sister Lorraine Mott of Gainesville, Fla. She is survived by sisters Ruth Widman of Batavia, Ill., and Dorothy Strandberg of New Richmond, Wis.; sons Keith E. (Bonnie) Johnston of Berkeley, Calif., and COL (US Army Ret.) Wayne R. (Le Ann) Johnston of Conway, Ark.; grandchildren Daniel (Kathryn) Johnston of Bargersville, Ind., Elizabeth Johnston of Overland Park, Kan., and Nicole (Peter) Callis of Oakland, Calif.; and four great-grandchildren. A private interment will be held at the Fairview Memorial Gardens in Fayetteville. Her guest book is available at the Moore's Chapel Funeral Home page on the web. Memorials may be made to the Grand Avenue United Methodist Church in Stuttgart or the Sequoyah United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. Marian spent her entire life taking care of her family. She was not "just" a housewife – instead she was a wonderful homemaker and gracious lady. She grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, graduated from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor's degree in home economics, married her husband while he was on leave from Army service in WWII, and raised her family in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." She was a Cub Scout Den Mother when her sons were young. She enjoyed bird watching with her husband and family. She was a volunteer for eleven years in the Grand Avenue Methodist Church library and worked for five years in the Stuttgart Public Library. Marian loved to sing. Her high school classmates noted "she's the best little singer we've ever heard... her voice is as sweet as that of a bird." Her big sister Lorraine paid for her voice lessons while she was in college. She sang in church choirs for over 70 years – many times being featured as a soloist or in a duet with her tenor husband at Grand Avenue Methodist in Stuttgart or Sequoyah Methodist in Fayetteville. In 1975 she was honored with the National Federation of Music Clubs award for merit. She lived in Stuttgart, Ark. (the Rice and Duck Capital of the World) for 34 years. She followed her research agronomist husband for several of his international rice breeding conferences in Japan and the Philippines as well as his stateside duties in Maryland. Most of her travels, however, were in the USA for family reunions in Nebraska, California, Oregon, or Colorado. In her view, vacations were meant for family, not for tourism. She resided in Fayetteville, Ark., for 32 years. Marian spent her senior years in the Butterfield Trail Village life-care facility. Her final six years were under the watchful and wonderfully tender care of the BTV Health Care Center staff. To sign the online guest book, visit www.mooresfuneralchapel.com.