Louise Franklin Johnson

Loving mother, wife, sister, grandmother, artist, historian, and passionate guardian of the family heritage. She joined our Heavenly Father on November 8, 2012 with dignity and peace, at home and with family near, as she had deeply wished.

She is survived by her loving husband of 62 years, Howard Elmer Johnson, her sons Dr. Laurence Franklin and wife Maria Cisneros-Solis Johnson; Howard David Johnson and his wife Virginia Johnson, and daughter Pamela Johnson Neeley and her husband Stephen Neeley. She leaves one surviving sister, Mary Joyce Klingler, six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

Bertie Louise Franklin was born July 30, 1932 in Gatesville, Texas to parents Verda and Della (Bates) Franklin. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Mary Roberta “Bertie” (Cahoon) Franklin, wife of Rev. William Lafayette Franklin, but preferred to be called Louise. The Franklins had four daughters: Winnie Marie, Geraldine, Bertie Louise, and Mary Joyce. In 1936, the Franklin family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, however they made frequent trips back to Coryell Co. to visit relatives.

Louise married Sgt. (USAF) Howard Elmer “Buddy” Johnson in 1950. Howard was born March 3, 1928 in Corpus Christi, Texas to Gladys (Williams) and Elmer Franklin “Buddy” Johnson. Their growing family spent eleven years overseas on various tours, including Germany, Bermuda, and Tripoli, Libya. In February 1973, Howard retired from the Air Force after 27 years of service, which included many medals and various commendations. The family moved to Round Rock, Texas (Williamson County) in 1974 where Howard began working as an Investigative Auditor with the TX Attorney General’s Office. In May, 1981 Louise graduated from Austin Community College with an Associate of Science degree in Business Administration, and was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Fraternity.

Louise descends from several early Texas pioneers, of whom five generations are buried in Coryell County, where she and Howard bought and renovated their ancestral family farmhouse in 1983. As a proud sixth-generation Texan and fourteenth-generation American, she was a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, William B. Travis Chapter; The Daughters of the American Revolution, Tankful Hubbard Chapter; United Daughters of the Confederacy, Albert Sidney Johnson Chapter; National Society of Colonial Dames XVII Century Embassy Chapter; National Society of the United States Daughters of 1812, Oliver Hazard Perry Chapter.