Glenna was born August 11, 1928, in Arlie, Texas to Jim and Irene Beavers, and passed from this life on March 28, 2022, in Garland, Texas. She graduated from Dodson High School in 1945, and later attended Texas Tech, graduating with a degree in Elementary Education in 1963.
She taught in Lubbock Independent School District for 28 years. In 1947 she married Glen Johnston in Hollis, Oklahoma. They had 2 sons, Ted Wayne, and James Glen Johnston. Mr. Johnston preceded her in death in 1960. She moved from Lamesa to Lubbock in 1961. In 1967 she married Buck Burns. He died in 1998. She was also preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Clifford Beavers, and two sisters Esta Fae Berryhill and Lorene Wolf.
Glenna was a member of Buckingham Road Church of Christ, and a former member of the South Plains Church of Christ, and taught children’s Bible Classes for many years. She was active in the Lubbock community and had served as president of the Lubbock Classroom Teachers Assoc., Lubbock Retired Teachers, and District XVII Retired Teachers. She had also served as president of the Lubbock League of Women Voters, Altrusa of Lubbock, American Association of University Women, and the Twentieth Century Club.
She is survived by 2 sons, Ted Johnston and wife Marie, of Garland, James Johnston and wife LuAnn, of Jonesboro, Arkansas, two stepdaughters, Elizabeth Higginbotham of Grapevine, and Peggy Morris of Lubbock. She had 15 grandchildren, Glen Johnston and his wife Marina, Joan Munsami and her husband Marlon, Katie Widmer, and husband Kevin, and Scott Johnston and wife, Lauren, and on the Burn’s side: Becky Richard, Susan May, Robin Morris, Sarah Collins, Mynra Lyn Chaney, Tresa Burns, Buck Burns, Kevin Burns, Brian Higginbotham, Mary Kennon, and Dovie Holt. There are 10 great grandchildren, Alexandra, Anton, Andrei, Abigail, Declan, Cooper, and Oakley Glenna Johnston, Landon Widmer, and Evan and Kera Munsami. She had many more great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren on the Burns side of the family.
Glenna loved her family and she worked to make the world a better place. Memorials may be made to The Children’s Home of Lubbock, P.O. Box 2824, Lubbock, TX 79408.
James Johnston her son will conduct the funeral.
