Visitation for Shirley Marie Baker Johnson, 89, Clinton, will be from 5-7 pm Tuesday, October 25, 2022, Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. The casket will be closed at the request of family. Burial will be at Clinton Cemetery Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 11:00 am; Pastor Patrick Yancey will be officiating. Shirley died October, 17, 2022, at Bridge Haven memory care home.
Shirley was born August 10, 1933, at Ransom Memorial Hospital in Ottawa, Kansas. She was the youngest of five children born to Orville Newton and Geneva Preston Baker. She attended Brubaker Grade school and Baldwin City High School, before graduating from Overbrook High School in 1951, where she was a cheerleader.
Shirley worked in the office of Dr. W.O. and Richard Nelson and then nine years at the Kansas Geological survey office, followed by 15 years as a school bus driver for Lawrence Public Schools. She loved her job as a bus driver and drove several of her own grandchildren to school each morning.
Shirley met her husband Rex Johnson “in jail” while visiting her sister. In 1965 Rex became Sheriff and he and Shirley and their family moved into the Sheriff’s quarters which was connected to the jail and Douglas County courthouse. In 1970 Rex and Shirley moved to the country, west of what is now Clinton Lake. Many deputies affectionately called Shirley “mom” whenever they saw her. Shirley cooked for the county inmates, and later hired out the cooking, a job requirement of the acting sheriff until the mid-eighties, when the County took over the task of feeding the inmates.
Shirley married Rex Johnson on October 31, 1954, in Lawrence, KS. He preceded her in death in 2021. She was also preceded in death by two sons Duane Lee Johnson and David Bruce Johnson, three sisters, Maxine Elschlager, Virginia Aldridge and Jean Hodson, and a brother, Creed Baker.
Survivors include two sons, Allen Johnson and wife Robin, Baldwin City, and Dale Johnson and wife Kathy, Lawrence; a daughter Susan Collins, and husband Jason, Pooler GA; 9 grandchildren, Aaron, Paul, Patrick, Ross, Colton, and Jake Johnson, Kyle Bulmer, Kelly Mondi, and Robi Murray; and 22 great-grandchildren
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to VNA/Hospice of Lawrence, in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana St., Lawrence, KS 66044. Online condolences may be sent at rumsey-yost.com
