Pleasant Hill, TN - Born in Evansville, IL, and raised in Highland Park and Lake Forest IL, Cynthia attended Ferry Hall School, and went on to earn her BA at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, VA, followed by a masters degree in guidance and counseling at Northwestern University in Chicago.

After a brief career as a counselor at the University of Miami in Ohio, Cynthia married her heart-throb, the Reverend Forrest Neil Johnson, in 1952. Together the two of them brought four children into the world, in quick succession.

Cynthia often told her children when they were young, "my life began when I met your father."

Raised on the North Shore, in a conservative family, the marriage up-ended her inherited world-view and threw her into a world of excitement, politics, drama, endless transitions, and numerous personal challenges. Each of these were met with immense strength, sometimes tight-lipped self-will, grace, faith, and an unfailing sense of humor.

Together with Forrest, Cynthia moved from Chicago to Scotland in 1953, where their first child, Kimberly, was born in 1954.

"She only cost us two bars of soap! And I got to rest in the hospital for two weeks!" Cynthia would remark.

The couple and baby then camped all across eastern Europe, with Cynthia washing diapers in streams and cooking over a camp-stove.

After Scotland it was back to Illinois to bring two more babies into the world, then on to Tokyo, Japan for a year, New York City, where the fourth child was born, two towns in Connecticut, Peterborough, NH, El Paso, TX, and back to Connecticut, where the marriage ended.

This was a period Cynthia and Forrest would later call "The Tragedy." Having climaxed in Connecticut, "The Tragedy" found its denouement when the couple re-setup housekeeping in El Paso, Forrest divorced his second wife, he and Cynthia re-married, and they reinvented themselves.

Cynthia had supported her husband's social justice and church work for decades. Now, with all the kids off on their own, she found a calling as President of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), volunteered at the Indian Hospital in Santa Fe, and at hospice, and served in various capacities in other peace and justice, and community building activities.

Throughout their earlier, fast-paced, and sometimes tumultuous years, what had remained consistent in Cynthia's life, and her children' lives, was her fierce attention to their well-being, including their spiritual growth. She was a reliable blend of fun and unquestionable firmness, providing consistent daily routines. There was the insistence on the family eating dinner together — every single night. The night-time ritual of reading out loud "Charlotte's Web" was her favorite - she always cried when Charlotte died. The rocking of children, one at a time on her lap, in her grandmother's rocking chair, while chanting the same few comforting syllables over and over, night after night. The prayers, for other people, and the world, before sleep. The singing of the same song at the close of prayer time. And of course, the weekly attendance at church services. Between these firm lines, our Mom celebrated freedom of thought, movement, creativity, and even riotous play, halted only by the call to dinner, "Come on kids, I'm not just whistling Dixie here. Hop to it!"

Not a one of us offspring remembers our Mom with anything less than love, respect, warmth and laugh-out-loud memories. She was a strong raft that carried us through the whitewater rapids of childhood and young adulthood. And we are grateful.

In their elder years our nomad parents somehow landed in the tiny, peaceful village of Pleasant Hill, TN, high up on the Cumberland Plateau. The family wishes to publicly thank the seven kind, smart, competent women, a constellation of stars, the seven sisters you might say, who mothered our mother during her final six or so years, and maybe were mothered by her just a tad bit. They are: Terrie Stewart, Patti Davis Hayes, Bonnie Scott, Tammy Williams, Cheryl Meadows, Peggy Kemmer and Donna Hankins. You were her second family, and her best friends in the end. She loved you. So do we. And we will be forever grateful.

Cynthia leaves behind her four, Kimberly Arrington (Robert) of Bethlehem, KY; Maj-Britt Johnson (Michael, deceased) of Pittsboro, N.C.; Alexis H. Johnson (Amy) of Santa Fe, N.M; Laird F. Johnson (Ruth) of Dallas TX; as as well as five amazing grandchildren, Ashley (Jon), Sam (Daina), Emily (Marcos), Natalie, Ellie, and two adorable great-grandchildren, Piper and Emmita, with a third great-grand about to make an entrance, very soon.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate Cynthia's life on Saturday, August 29, 2 p.m. at St. Raphael's Episcopal Church, Crossville, TN. A reception to follow.