Mariane Johnson - 1947-2018

Mariane Johnson was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and adopted at a tender age by Mary and Adolphus Kozak of Northampton, Massachusetts. Upon graduation from Northampton High School, she headed West to see what all the excitement was about in San Francisco and Berkeley. With her best friend and small band of cultural explorers, she boarded a beat-up VW bus and headed for California. When the bus expired in Modesto, a desperate phone call brought the whole crew to an apartment rented by the friend of a friend of one of the folks on the bus. Mariane met Bill, her husband-to-be, that night. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in McMinnville, Oregon, in July of this year. 
Mariane was full of love. She loved her family, she loved her friends, and she especially loved her animals, from horses to St. Bernards, from cats to canaries, from turtles to goldfish. Through the years, she rescued over a dozen cats, several dogs, a couple of wild critters and a beautiful paint filly she named Annie Oatley. She placed most of them, and the ones she kept lived charmed lives basking in her aura. When she moved to Oregon, the hummingbirds and deer outside her window were the icing on the cake, and every life form in her orbit was well-fed. 
Mariane was an artist. She had a keen eye for color, proportion, and design and she developed the technical skills she needed to realize her vision. Whether she was making a ring, decorating a cake, or working on a quilt, her standards were high and her execution was flawless. True to form, she gave everything she made to her friends.
Mariane was an empath. She could walk into a room and know who was hurting. Strangers would approach her on the street or in a store and tell her tell her their troubles. She would always listen, and she would usually find a way to acknowledge them and ease their pain with a word or a touch. Some of their pain would become hers; for Mariane, that was just the cost of doing business.
Mariane’s life was too full to encapsulate in this brief remembrance. She was a motorcyclist. She was a carpenter. She was a dead-eye shot with her Ruger. She was politically active in service to the disadvantaged. She grew the most beautiful roses...on and on. Her life came to an end on August 24, 2018, and she will be missed by everyone who knew her. She is survived by her husband, Bill; and her sister, Valerie. Rest in Love and Peace.