Edith Johnson

Mrs. Lawrence Johnson Dies Here Saturday

Edith Hancock Johnson, 70, wife of Lawrence Johnson, died at the Lusk Hospital Saturday evening, June 1st, at 10:30, after a brief illness from streptococic infection.

Mrs. Johnson has been an interesting and colorful figure in the life of this community for nearly sixty years. She was a woman of talent and her interests were many and varied. She was the author of a novel, "The Foreman of the JA 6," which was published in 1908, which she wrote under the pen name of E. Joy Johnson. She possessed a very fine voice and received considerable training in New York City and in former years often delighted Lusk audiences and friends with her singing.

She was an expert horsewoman, and when Theodore Roosevelt visited the Frontier show at Cheyenne when he was President, Mrs. Johnson had the privilege of being the lady who rode in the lead of the Frontier parade.

BORN IN WALES
Born on February 9, 1876, at New Tredegar, South Wales, the daughter of Rev. Joseph Hancock, and wife, Elizabeth Hamlin, she came to America with the family when she was six years of age and settled in New York State.

In 1888, Mrs. Hancock and the children came to the town of Lusk, where the father had been for some time as a missionary of the Congregational Church.

The spring following the arrival of the family, Rev. Hancock filed on a homestead south of Lusk, which is now known as the Mayes Addition.

On July 3, 1894, Edith Hancock was married to Lawrence Johnson at the home of her sister, Mrs. A. E. McFarlane, who resided on a ranch west of town. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of one son, Harleigh, who resides at Lusk, and two daughters, Mrs. Ihla Anderson of Devil's Tower, Wyo., and Avaley Johnson of Los Angeles, Calif.

Before Mrs. Johnson was married she assisted in the Lusk postoffice and was also a typesetter in The Lusk Herald office. The newspaper then belonged to her brother-in-law, J. E. Mayes.

She was one of the first women in Wyoming to own and operate a drug store, which business she gave up when she and her husband became joint owners of the JA6 ranch with Mr. Johnson's brother, the late Alfred Johnson. Later they purchased the Cross A ranch which they still own and where they made their home much of the time, although they also retained a home in Lusk.

Mrs. Johnson and her husband had traveled extensively during their lives and just about a month previous to her death Mrs. Johnson had returned from California, where she spent several months.

Surviving her besides her husband are her son and two daughters; one sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Mayes of San Joe Calif.; a brother, Harold Hancock, of The Dalles, Oregon. A niece and two nephews reside here. They are Mrs. Helen Willson and Jack and Ralph McFarlane.

Two brothers, James and Bert Hancock, preceded her in death.

Funeral services were held from the Peet Chapel on Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock. Rev. Lawrence P. Juell, pastor of the Congregational Church, officiated.

The song, "The Lord Is My Shepherd," was sung by Mrs. H. J. Templeton. Mrs. Leslie Roberts, George Gibson and Darryl Manring and Mrs. Templeton sang "The End of a Perfect Day." Mrs. Gerald Bardo was the accompanist.

The active casket bearers were Henry Petz, J. P. Costlow, Dudley Fields, John Lorenzen, George Gibson and Henry McGinnis. The honorary ones were Fred Root, John W. Agnew, J. W. Christina, Mike Cordell, Glen L. Willson and Edward M. Arnold.

Interment was made in the Lusk Cemetery.

Out-of-town relatives here to attend the funeral services were Mr. and Mrs. William Anderson of Devil's Tower, Wyo.; Avaley Johnson of Los Angeles; a brother, Harold Hancock, of The Dalles, Oregon; two nieces, Mrs. Ione Shidler of Edgerton, Wyo., and Mrs. Orian Hamblin of Belle Fourche, So. Dak., and a sister-in-law, Miss Mary Johnson of Seattle, Wash.

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