Jennifer Johnson passed away on June 29, surrounded by her loving family after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. She was 80.
Jennifer Johnson, 80, passed away June 29.
She was born in England on June 27, 1943, the only child of George and Florence Clarkson. She grew up with the hardships of World War II and its aftermath in England. Her father, a commando, was away fighting in East Asia and did not meet her until she was two years old. Her mother drove an ambulance in the war effort.
She met her husband, Rodney, in 1960 and married in 1962. They had three children and moved to Darien in 1975. While she had never flown on a plane and only just recently learned to drive, she single-handedly packed up the house, three kids, and moved 3,000 miles to join Rodney in a new country and start a new life.
While she lived in the U.S. most of her life, she remained British to the core as anyone lucky enough to have tea with her knew.
While raising three kids and eventually nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren, Jennifer managed to help others. She worked with Person to Person and helped elderly people in the community.
With a group of friends, she started a “Brits Group” of English ladies to help them acclimate to life in the U.S., a group that exists to this day. Later, along with Rodney, she worked tirelessly to help create the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Garden, a memorial to the British and Commonwealth victims of September 11th in Hanover Square in lower Manhattan.
Jennifer’s kindness and compassion helped the families of the victims grieve when they visited for memorial services each year. Jennifer was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend to all who knew her.
She was kind, loving, elegant, compassionate, and always had a kind word for everyone she met. She often told complete strangers how beautiful they were. Whether you knew her as Jennifer, Jenny, Mum, Mom, Nana, or Granna, to know her was to love her. She would light up a room with her smile and could always make you feel good about yourself.
She was a wonderful cook and hostess and loved to entertain friends, neighbors, and especially family.
Jennifer leaves behind her husband, Rodney Johnson; their son, Simon Johnson, and his wife, Julie, of Monroe; their son, Paul Johnson, and his wife, Stacy, of Darien; and their daughter, Sara Poler, and her husband, Tim, of Fairfield. She will always be loved by her nine grandchildren: Phoebe, Chloe, Reveley, Olivia, Cameron, Clark, Ewan, Charlie and Delilah; and three great-grandchildren: Beatrix, Juliette and John.
Visitation was held on July 7 at the Lawrence Funeral Home. Please consider a donation the Alzheimer’s Association.
— an obituary from Lawrence Funeral Home, where online condolences may be left