Margaret Keepin Johnson

Margaret (Marge) Ellen Keepin Johnson of Putnam County, Georgia, age 95, quietly passed away in her sleep on March 23, 2017. She had been in assisted living in Littleton, Colorado, near her granddaughter, Kristin Johnson Foster and her family. She was the long-time matriarch of Georgia’s Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Putnam County and an honorary 4-H counselor and had lived with zest and spirit. Her husband, Cecil E. Johnson, was the first director of the 4-H Center near Eatonton, Georgia, serving in that position for over twenty years. Born on April 7, 1921, in Vittoria, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Thomas Howard and Eva Belle Dunkin Keepin, Marge became a United States citizen with her service as an Army Nurse during World War II. She had moved with her family to Detroit, Michigan, as a child, graduating from Lake Orion High School and the Grace Hospital School of Nursing. As a Registered Nurse, she enlisted with two friends in the United States Army and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. She served in the hospital at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, before deploying aboard the ship U.S.S. Hermitage (the same ship upon which she returned from Europe) to the 113th General Hospital, Persian Gulf Command, Ahwaz, Iran, where she served from March 1943 until January 1945 supporting the transfer of Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union. She then redeployed through France to Rheinau, Germany, where she served in a general hospital that had been converted from a schoolhouse. After VE Day, First Lieutenant Keepin met her future husband, Captain Cecil E. Johnson, formerly a rifle company commander in the 84th Infantry Division. They married in Oglethorpe, Georgia, on April 11, 1946, and subsequently raised three sons who would also serve in the U. S. Army. While living in Sylvester, Georgia, where Cecil was County Agent, Marge served as a nurse in Worth County Health Department. When Cecil became Director of Rock Eagle 4-H Center in 1955, she was the nurse for the first year of the camp’s operation. Later in life, for three years she enjoyed helping many children learn to read in her employment at Eatonton Grammar School. During her years associated with Rock Eagle, Marge was fondly known to hundreds of counselors as Mrs. J. She was involved with many of the camping activities, which included homemade ice cream socials and trips to other 4-H camps and sites. For more than fifty years she served as a role model for the counselors in Rock Eagle’s summer programs, many of whom remained her friends for life. After Cecil’s retirement from Rock Eagle in 1975 and his death in 1990, she continued her commitment to Rock Eagle and nearby Union Chapel of which she was the congregation’s secretary. Marge was an active member of the Eatonton Garden Club, Uncle Remus Woman’s Club, and the Union Chapel Home Maker’s Club. She was known locally as the Blueberry Queen since she supplied blueberries to her many friends. Because of her years of service to Rock Eagle, she received the singular honor of being designated an honorary Rock Eagle Counselor by the Counselors’ Association. After assuring that her property became part of Rock Eagle, in 2007 she left her beloved woods and her nuts and berries to move to Abingdon Place in Gastonia, North Carolina, to be near her granddaughter Kristin and her family. She subsequently moved with them to Littleton, Colorado, in January 2011. Mrs. Johnson was preceded in death by her husband, Cecil E. Johnson. She is survived by her sons, Colonel James M. Johnson, U.S. Army Retired, and wife Lois, Major General William H. Johnson, U.S. Army Retired, and wife Melanie, Colonel Thomas C. Johnson, U.S. Army Retired, and wife Cindy; grandchildren, Kristin and husband Corbett Foster, Dana and husband Army Lieutenant Colonel David Key, Adam Johnson, Lucas and wife Candice Johnson, Tyler Johnson, and Nicole Johnson; and, great- grandchildren, Caden and Jackson Foster, Jessa and Spencer Key, Campbell Johnson, and Brennan Johnson. A Memorial Service for Mrs. Johnson will be held at 1:00 PM, on Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Union Chapel United Methodist Church. Interment, with full Military Honors, will follow the service at Union Chapel UMC Cemetery. Reception and fellowship will follow at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center Dining Hall. The family requests, in lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the Johnson-Thompson-Fitch Scholarship Fund in memory of Margaret K. Johnson, Georgia 4-H Foundation, 302 Hoke Smith Annex, the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 or to Union Chapel UMC, in care of Ms. Barbara Turk, 119 Grimes Road NE, Milledgeville, Georgia 31061.