James Anton Johnson

James Anton “Jamie” Johnson, age 60, of Placerville, California, passed away unexpectedly on January 16, 2025. Jamie was born on September 15, 1964 to Mildred and Raphael Johnson in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. Jamie grew up the youngest of three children, and was part of a large extended family of grandparents, aunts, and uncles, who settled in Lanse, Pennsylvania, a small rural village he would later return to and begin his own family. In late 2001, Jamie met his wife Emily in Clarion, Pennsylvania, and the two were married in July of 2002. They spent their first decade of life together creating their “beautiful bouquet” — Jamie’s favorite phrase to describe the family — of six amazing children, and have since relocated from Pennsylvania to California, realizing a longtime dream to bring the family out to experience life on the west coast. The source of Jamie’s greatest love and pride was his family, and the family he leaves behind, as well as the communities in which he lived and worked, grieve this abrupt loss deeply.

Jamie graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and attained his Master of Education in Counseling from Bridgewater State College. Throughout Jamie’s life, his career spanned decades of work in a variety of disciplines, from higher education to healthcare, from fundraising to managing a nonprofit. The thread that connected all of Jamie’s professional endeavors was his deep and genuine desire to seek out those who were hurting or in need and make life easier for them. He sought to create networks of help for underserved and vulnerable populations, and lived his life by example in always striving to connect people with what they needed. The empathy and compassion that inspired the legacy of work he left in this world are the essence of who he was, and if you had the good fortune to know him and work with him, you know how special and authentic that was. Jamie was a person who tended to neglect and overlook his own struggles and instead focused his energy outward and channeled it into taking care of others. Most recently, Jamie served as the Executive Director for the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance in Davis, California.

Jamie was preceded in death by his brother Mark (Louise Ensz); his father Raphael; mother Mildred; maternal and paternal grandparents; and many aunts and uncles. He is survived by his wife, Emily, of Placerville, and their children, Julian, Lily, Ella, Nico, Meadow, and Silas; his sister Lisa Young (David); nieces Rebecca Lanford (Jay), Alathea de Almeida (Felipe), Bethany Westrum (Zach), and Linnea Banz (Jared); and 14 beautiful great-nieces and great-nephews. The family is strengthened in spirit during this dark time by the light of hope flickering in the love and compassion of the many people Jamie impacted during his too-short but deeply meaningful life.