Margaret Ann "Peggy" Connon Johnson

A longtime resident of Seattle and Harstine Island, Peggy passed peacefully on July 17, 2026 at home in Horizon House, Seattle. She was born August 4, 1936, in Lake Forest, Illinois, to Alfred Connon of Aberdeen, Scotland, and Karin Olsson Connon of Årsunda, Sweden.

In summer of 1942, Peggy and her suddenly widowed mother journeyed west aboard a troops-filled train to join relatives in Kelso, Washington. There Peggy grew up with her Swedish extended family, and in junior high there she met the lad who became Rick Lane Johnson, MD, her intrepid companion for 55 years of adventure, laughter and love.  Three children were born and now survive them: David Lane Johnson, Seattle; Baird Johnson (Kathleen O’Sullivan), Seattle; and Kajsa Johnson Freeman (Ed Freeman).  Cherished grandchildren are: Ellis, Maren and Greta Johnson, Kieran and Brendan Johnson, and Troy and Aeremys Wing. Her sister, Anamae Okerstrom Moku, passed away in 2023.

A graduate of Kelso High School and Whitworth College, Peggy earned an MA in English in 1960 from Northwestern University and an MPA degree in 1980 from the Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Washington (now the Evans School).  She taught English in Bellevue schools and at Highline College, plus third grade in New Jersey while Rick interned in Philadelphia. Later Peggy held administrative/educational positions at Seattle University, United Way of King County, the Washington Association for Biomedical Research, where she was the first Executive Director, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she retired in 1998.

As a volunteer, Peggy served on many boards and commissions, especially enjoying her years with Intiman Theatre, the League of Women Voters (both city and state), and the Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, where she was ordained an Elder in 1971. At home in Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood for 32 years, Peggy and Rick hosted groups of friends, family, fellow winemakers, colleagues, and events to support favorite causes.

Family members and friends also filled their island place, their primary home in retirement. In 2013 they moved to Horizon House, where Rick died in 2015.

A cancer survivor, Peggy chuckled that a bigger challenge was “keeping up with Rick” as they sailed and kayaked Puget Sound, hiked the hills of the West, and explored distant lands such as Tuscany, Turkey, Tibet and that mecca for English majors, London. Late in life, Peggy wrote a memoir of her Swedish mother and growing up in a hard-working immigrant family.

A memorial service will be at 2:00pm September 26 at Horizon House in Seattle.