Marion E. Johnson

Published 9:04 am Wednesday, April 18, 2018

October 12, 1934 – January 9, 2018

Marion Elisabeth Johnson, a resident of Bend since 1966, passed away quietly on January 9, 2018, in the company of her children and other family members, at the age of 83 in Burlingame, California, following an ongoing struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Surviving family members include her brother, D. Lowell McGrane; her children, Andrea, Carl, and Eric Johnson; and grandchildren, Molly, Emily, Elizabeth, and Dylan.

Born in San Francisco to Gordon and Gertrude (Lowell) McGrane, Marion spent much of her childhood in Sacramento and Pomona, California. She earned a B.S. in medical microbiology from Stanford University in 1956, before meeting her husband, Don, while in graduate school there. The two married in 1959, and following his medical training in Vermont and Portland, settled in Bend with their three small children. They were married until 1985. After raising her family and working in Don’s medical office, Marion joined the staff of Bend Research in the mid-1980s, where she worked on drug formulation development until her retirement in 2008.

Marion was passionate about many things, but most notably music, animals, and the Church. As the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and a church organist, she was exposed to music early in her life. She became enamored with the violin at the age of five after seeing a recital by Jascha Heifetz, and started to play the instrument herself by the time she was seven. She continued to play in junior high, high school, and college symphony orchestras throughout her education. After moving to Bend, she became one of the earliest members of the Central Oregon Symphony in 1967, and was concertmaster for many years in the 1970s and 1980s. Marion was the longest-tenured musician in the symphony at the time of her retirement in 2012. Perhaps her greatest friendships were forged with her partners in the Dove String Quartet, including original members Virginia Riggs, Leslie Knight, and Eleanor Davidson, who played together for hundreds of weddings and other events in Central Oregon from 1979 until 2010. Marion was a regular violinist and violist in the Cascade Music Festival, the Sunriver Music Festival, and numerous other church, choral, and theater events.

Marion always had a soft spot for animals. Whether it was a childhood iguana, her college cats, the injured baby swallows she rescued and raised, the horses that she raised and rode dressage-style, the porcupines that she live-trapped and “deported” from her property, or her huge, white Akbash sheepdogs, Marion put her heart into caring for her animals and treating them with respect. Living on her own, at one point she had more than thirty goats, four cats, a dog, twelve chickens, and a horse, all while working full-time, playing in the symphony and quartet, volunteering, and supporting her church. She loved observing birds and animals in nature, including the innumerable Central Oregon deer who fed off the plants around her various houses, and the wide range of African wildlife she was delighted to have observed in person on a safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania in 2009.

Marion was always intellectually curious, with a scientific mind, and would follow through with practical results. When she became interested in weaving and spinning, she learned how to do both and decorated the household with textiles she had made. When she became curious about spinning cashmere wool, she researched what it would take to raise cashmere goats for their wool, and then started a small herd. She learned what made some cashmere softer than others, analyzed the fibers of her goats to see which produced softer wool, and meticulously bred for better wool each year, eventually winning an award at the state fair for best cashmere.

Marion was a long-time member of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. She participated in mission trips to Cuba and with Habitat for Humanity to build housing in Guatemala. She was a volunteer at the High Desert Museum for many years and also helped local immigrants in Central Oregon. As a donor, she sponsored dozens of children in developing countries through ChildFund International (formerly Christian Children’s Fund) over the course of forty-nine continuous years of support.

A memorial service and reception will be held in Bend at the First Presbyterian Church (230 NE Ninth St.) on Saturday, April 28 at 2:00 p.m.

Memorial donations may be made to one of the following, or a non-profit of the donor’s choice: – Central Oregon Symphony Association, 15 SW Colorado Ave., Suite 320, Bend, Oregon 97702, or Bend Area Habitat for Humanity, 224 NE Thurston Ave., Bend, Oregon 97701, or First Presbyterian Church of Bend, 230 NE Ninth Street, Bend, Oregon 97701.