(Editor’s Note: A person who was well known in the Gwinnett community and associated with the former Gwinnett Daily News, reporter and photographer Pat Johnson, died recently. Former County Extension Agent Bill Baughman remembers her fondly. –eeb)
By Bill Baughman | Patsy Jane “Pat” Livingston Johnson, age 89, of Bushnell, Fla., and formerly of Lawrenceville and Gainesville, Ga., passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday morning, Aug. 9, 2015.
Baughman
The preceding was in an obituary I found in the newspaper. I wonder how many local folks remember this person who had lived and worked in Gwinnett for many years. I had to do a double take to see if this was the person I knew. Was it the journalist I remembered fondly who worked at the Gwinnett Daily News? Sadly, it was.
If you were active in the business and community affairs in the 1970s and 1980s, you would have known someone she wrote a feature about, or snapped their photograph. This was Pat Johnson.
She was a graduate in Journalism at Louisiana State University. I wish I had known that, as we could have compared our Tigers — LSU and Auburn. Further, I discovered she became the first female sportswriter at The Atlanta Constitution in 1947.
Aside from journalism, Pat had an avid interest in horticulture. One only had to visit her small farm on James Road in the Bethesda community to know that. And, as a horticulturist myself, I had a lot to share with her.
Her work at the newspaper kept her busy. I’ve been the subject of some of her articles. She came to the Extension Service office in the basement of the Lawrenceville Post Office about 1968 to take a photo of my wife, Connie and our first child, Cathy. Later, she came to my house in Snellville to do a story about my wife and four children. And, when the adult and youth high point exhibit winners at the Gwinnett County Fair were named, she was there to capture the moment on film.
One guy remembers Pat “lugging that big Speed Graflix camera around.” She took great photos with it, and the sharpness from the large format film was what the newspaper wanted.
I have heard her explain more than once, when posing someone for their photo, to turn their face, or lift their shoulder one way or another, explaining, “It won’t feel natural, but it will come out all right.” And, it did.
After her retirement about 1991, she attended Gwinnett Tech at age 68, and received an associate’s degree in environmental horticulture. She is said to have been the oldest graduate of Gwinnett Tech in 1994.
Soon after, she moved to Gainesville when we lost touch with one another. She continued learning as she attended Brenau University’s Learning and Leisure Institute. And, at home, she enjoyed putting all she learned about plants to good use.
Pat is survived by her children: Daniel Harris Johnson, Guy Livingston Johnson, and Jody Johnson Watson, several grand and great grandchildren, and other family.
Her ashes are to be scattered in Louisiana where it is said she learned to fish with her father on Lake Lafourche.
Pat Johnson: We sadly miss you.
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