Kathryn Johnson, passed away October 23, 2019, at age 93 in Atlanta Ga. Kathryn was born in Columbus, GA, the middle of three children of John Lewis Johnson and Lula Johnson. She was a graduate of Agnes Scott College in 1947. When very few women held such positions, she became an esteemed journalist and news reporter for more than 50 years. She was a reporter with Associated Press, an editor at US News & World Report and CNN. She covered civil rights in the U.S. including the advent of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s peaceful movement for the rights of black people. In addition to several national and state political campaigns, she covered the Viet Nam War, American POW/MIA’s, the trial of Army Lt. Calley for the My Lai massacre and countless other issues impacting American life. The Associated Press cited Kathryn for Distinguished Coverage of Civil rights for the Decade of the 1960s. She was awarded the coveted Neiman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard. She was awarded the Associated Press Managing Editors for William Calley and the American POWS in Vietnam. During the Carter and Reagan presidencies, she covered Capitol Hill in Washington DC, for U.S. News and World Report and returned to Atlanta to work at CNN, writing the news.
She is survived by a nephew, John Besbekos (Lynn), two nieces, Rebecca Winters (Michael) and Kathryn Besbekos., Her cousin, Alex Kliros (Diane) and Rosemary Stacey (Vernon) and many other cousins.
The family would like to thank Glenda Shaw and staff at Hollander Senior Living and AGAPE Hospice Care for their loving care.
The family will receive friends at H.M. Patterson & Son Arlington Chapel on Wednesday, October 30th from five until seven o'clock in the evening. Funeral services will be conducted on Thursday, October 31st at half past ten o'clock in the morning at Greenwood Cemetery, 1173 Cascade Avenue, SW, Atlanta.
