Mary Alice Boyce Johnston
(november 9, 1921 – mars 2, 2014)

Mary Alice Johnston died Sunday, March 2, 2014, at home in San Ramon, Calif. She was 92.

Born to George Henry Boyce, M.D., and Esther Stavrum Boyce, a teacher of Latin and German , on November 9, 1921, Mary was raised in Iron Mountain, Mich. After graduating from high school at age 17, she attended college at Miami, Ohio and completed her undergraduate studies in physical therapy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

During World War II Mary served as a physical therapist in the U.S. Army in Texas and at Barnes Hospital in Santa Fe, N.M., which specialized in rehabilitating amputees. The experience led to her to become an activist against war and violence. In Santa Fe she bought her first Eastman Kodak box camera and began a lifelong love affair with photography.

   in Santa Fe, 1946

After the war, Mary attended Columbia University where she met Richard Johnston. They married in 1948. Mary completed her MA in Corrective Education with a minor in French. She and Richard took a deferred honeymoon to France in 1950 and remained in Paris and later the United Kingdom until 1963. In 1951, Mary, Richard and friend David Eakin completed a three-month, 3,000-kilometer bicycle tour through France, Spain, Italy and Germany on a budget of a dollar a day. One outcome of this epic journey was the marriage of Mary and Richard’s son, Don, to David’s daughter, Erika, 35 years later.

During eight years in Paris, Mary studied at the Sorbonne and worked as a freelance photojournalist, accumulating a portfolio of daily Parisian life in the 1950s that would later become the subject of exhibits of her work and a book. At night she and Richard converted the kitchen of their Parisian apartment into a darkroom. Black and white remained her preferred medium. A collection of her photographs, PARIS: Photographs Across Time from an Island in Paris, was published in 2011.

Also a teacher and linguist, Mary loved word play and had a particular interest in philology. A student of old French, she translated documents dating back to the French occupation of the Louisiana territory in the 1700s for the Illinois History Museum while living in Springfield, Illinois. She edited articles, fiction and poetry written by her husband Richard. Mary taught French at schools in London (UK), Albany, N.Y., Springfield, Ill. and Crestone, Colo.

Mary was an advocate for women’s rights long before feminism became a popular movement. She was an active member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and a dedicated advocate for civil and human rights. Moved by the plight of the Native Americans she met and photographed in Santa Fe, she supported a variety of Native American education and health organizations.

Over the 65 years of their marriage, the places Mary and Richard called home included: New York City; Paris, France; London, England; Storrs, Connecticut; Albany, New York; Springfield, Illinois; Crestone, Colorado; Boulder, Colorado; and San Ramon, California.

Friends and family will long remember her quick, often irreverent, wit. A few days before her death, a hospice nurse asked: “How do you feel Mary?” With a mischievous smile she shot back: “Usually with my hand.”

Mary is survived by her husband Richard; son Don and wife Erika; daughters Linda and Kay Johnston; brother George Boyce; sister Margaret Ryder; granddaughter Katia Johnston; grandson Stephane Johnston and his wife Emilie; and many admiring nieces, nephews and friends whose lives she touched as a role model and through her art.

One of her favorite songs, which she loved to sing in her final days, was Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” with the fitting final refrain: “nothing but blue skies smiling at me … nothing but blue skies from now on.”

A celebration of her life will be held in April, 2014. For more information, contact donjohnston@yahoo.com.