Tullie Hoyle Johnson

Beloved mother and friend Tullie Hoyle Johnson passed away in her home in Cary, NC with family at her side at age 82 after a short illness. Tullie was born on January 3rd, 1943 in Lincolnton, NC to her parents Marcus Haywood Hoyle and L. D. Clark. She spent her childhood in Cherryville, NC where in her youth she played on the basketball team, enjoyed academic pursuits such as chemistry and discovered what would become a lifelong love of nature. She attended High Point College, graduating as a biology major in 1965 while developing a special interest in amphibians and insects. She also developed an interest in Alfred M. Johnson, Jr., a then Wake Forest College student and eventual husband, whom she met on a blind date, marrying on June 26th that same year.

Tullie’s passion for nature blossomed into her career as a high school biology teacher at J. F. Webb High School in Oxford, NC where she taught through 1970. Tullie and Al moved to Pittsburgh, PA where they both enrolled in the graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, with Tullie obtaining her Master’s degree in science education while Al pursued a Doctor of Philosophy degree in religion and anthropology. Their only and beloved child, Jeffrey, was also born in 1976 while in Pittsburgh. Returning to North Carolina in 1978 and settling in Cary, Tullie began volunteering at the state Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh, eventually becoming an employee in 1988. Over a 30 year career at the Museum, she became director of the Museum’s volunteer and intern programs, being admired by colleagues for her leadership and ability to stick with a project and see it all the way through.

Following retirement from the Museum in 2018, Tullie devoted a lot of time and energy to volunteering for such organizations as the park at Hemlock Bluffs, The Miracle League, The Cary Page Rotary Club, Cary’s Esteamed Coffee House and as an ESL teacher at her church. Her lifetime commitment to service was recognized with a Town of Cary Parks and Trails Award, and was given by the Governor of North Carolina both an Award for Excellence and membership in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest honorary society. She will forever be known among her friends and family as “The Queen of Volunteers.”

She is survived by her son Jeffrey Johnson and wife Alice Mathias of Jackson, Wyoming and brother-in-law William C. Johnson and wife Sara Ann of Suffolk, Virginia.