Obituary of John Riley "J.R." Johnson

John Riley “J.R.” Johnson died peacefully on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Granite Bay, Calif., at the age of 93 with his son and daughter in attendance. John was born March 22, 1922, in Providence, Ky., the fourth of seven children of J.R. Johnson Sr. and Zita Marguerite (Lucas) Johnson. He graduated from Frankfort High School in 1940 and in 1942 joined the U.S. Army Air Corps as a pilot. During a mission over Holland, he was shot down and held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft 1A, Barth, Germany. His memoir about this period, “Un-Armed, Un-Armored and Un-Escorted, A World War II C-47 Airborne Troop Carrier Pilot Remembers,” was published in 2014. After the war, John returned to Frankfort and married his high school sweetheart, Lou Avah Pevlor. He graduated from University of Kentucky with a B.S. in Industrial Chemistry and was subsequently awarded an M.S. in Nuclear Chemistry from Ohio State University and an M.A. in International Relations from George Washington University. John served in the U.S. Air Force for 30 years with assignments in Yokota, McClellan, Wright Patterson and the Pentagon. He retired from the military in 1973 as Deputy Director for Scientific and Technical Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency. After his distinguished career in military service, he spent another 22 years working in private industry in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area before finally retiring. Following the death of Lou Avah in 1993, he moved to Granite Bay, Calif., where he was actively involved with his church and community. He was preceded in death by Lou Avah Johnson, his son Kenneth Layne Johnson, his second wife Anne Deets Johnson and third wife Lois Johnson. He is survived by his sister Rosemary Dodds; his three children, Jenefer Lee Johnson, Cindy Lou Johnson and husband Nick, John R. Johnson and wife Claudia; and his two grandchildren, Scarlet Teresa Johnson and Eva Ruby Johnson. He will be remembered as a pilot and patriot and as an admired father, grandfather, brother, uncle, friend and neighbor, loved by all who knew him. Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church in Frankfort, Ky., on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. with a burial following at the Frankfort Cemetery.