Like the crossing over Jordan, Mary Frances Johnson, left the golden days of autumn for the golden light of Eternity, November 3, 2013. At the age of 91 she went home. She had a good life, full of love and grace. She showed kindness and goodwill to many, loved reading her bible, was a patriot to her country, and led an exemplary life.

Mary Frances Robertson was born in Covington, Oklahoma, August 12, 1922, to Roy Richard and Helen (Palmer) Robertson. She was named to honor her grandmothers, Mary Ann (Molly) Palmer and Emma Frances Robertson. Mary and her brother, Richard, grew up with parents who loved them fiercely and believed in God. They roamed across the oil fields of Oklahoma, lived briefly in Wyoming (surveying Tea Pot Dome), and settled permanently in East Texas in the 1930's.
Just as the Bible describes the tents of St. Paul, so too, the Robertson family lived out their beliefs through the Depression, spending several years "on the oil lease" in a tent, crediting all that they had as provided by God. Music filled their lives, with hours of singing together at home, and also in church.
A few years after graduating from Kilgore High School, Mary was encouraged by her brother, Richard, to join him at Wheaton College, in Illinois. He worked extra jobs in the summer and sacrificed his dorm room to sleep in a furnace room at the college in order to cover the cost of her study.
Very soon after arriving at Wheaton, at an old-fashioned fudge party in the women's house, John Babian of Romeo, Michigan, first saw the sweet and fair-haired sister of his classmate. Two years later, in the same week that Richard and Margaret (Stam) Robertson were married, so too, John and Mary wed as his graduation and the call to seminary were imminent. In the backyard of a church couple, with her parents blessing and presence (since they had already made the trip from Texas for their son's wedding) Mary and John wed May 27, 1944. Shortly thereafter, they left for two years of seminary at Eastern Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. They spent their summers with John's father in Romeo. The second summer there, John's father died.
John and Mary Babian served churches in Maxwell Nebraska, Cadillac and Monroe, both in Michigan. Rev. Babian was a minister of the American Baptist Churches, USA. (ABC-USA)
John left the pastorate in 1965 to join the ABC Region staff, and the family moved for a short while to Grass Lake, then built a home and settled in Mason Michigan.
Mary was a school teacher, having finished the degree she began at Wheaton at Eastern Michigan University. She first taught Kindergarten at Raisonville Elementary in Monroe. In Mason, she joined the staff at Alaiedon Elementary where she taught primarily 1st and 2nd graders from 1966-1986.
Mary and John were blessed with four children, John Wesley born in Longview, TX), David Leslie (born in North Platte, NE), Charles Edward, and Rebecca Helen (both born in Cadillac, MI.)
John died suddenly in October 1971, and Mary and her children stayed in Mason to find new ways of living the life of faith. Mary loved old houses, and took up a project of a Queen Anne cottage on Oak Street. In 1979, with her children all grown and launched for life, Mary moved to Lansing, for a condominium life, and became a member of First Baptist Church.
Soon after arriving, the discovery of colon cancer brought a deacon from her church, Richard Johnson, a widower, to call upon her in the hospital. True love struck between the two school teachers, and they were married on July 11, 1980. Dick's children (Jolaine, Leslie, Christine and David) were well-established, and grandchildren continued to arrive for them both.
Many happy times for the two families continued, with summer's spent at the Johnson lakeside homestead cottage in Curtis, MI. Crossword and jigsaw puzzles, card and games of all sorts, including croquet, were enjoyed and the blending of time and family life included faithful service to her Lord at her church in Lansing, and for several years as members of the YAH Singers.
As the retirement years passed, the long stays in the summer gave way to the need be closer to doctors and hospitals in Lansing. In the recent years, Mary's health allowed her to be a constant witness for her Savior, during many stays for heart and frailty of her health conditions.
After recently recovering from a broken leg and surgery, including rehab stay at Burcham CRH, Mary came "home" and she and Dick spent their final weeks together.
Heaven is surely filled with reunions and rejoicing. We can hardly believe after so many struggles from which she recovered, that her favorite chair would allow for her final breath, which came so suddenly.

We'll learn new ways to live without our sweet mother. She is survived by her second husband, Richard C. Johnson of Lansing; her children, J. Wesley of Sringfield Ohio; David (Betty) of DeWitt; Charles Edward of Brooklyn, NY; Becky (Peter) Murthum of Lansing; her cherished grandchildren, Ben and Angie Babian; Andy and Mindy Babian; Philip and Lindsay Babian; Laura and Aaron Cyrus; Emma (Tony) Nelson; and Max Murthum.

She also survived by loving nieces and nephews from the Robertson, and Babian families, and sister-in-law, Carrie Johnson Bosler.

Also a constant joy, her little ‘Great-Grands" delighted her: Emerson, Nathan, Rachel, Aaron and little John Robert. Those who are yet to be born will be told of Grandma Johnson, and her life of love and faith, for years to come. While she has "gone home," she will be at home in our hearts, remembering, until we meet her again, the mother that God gave to us.