Lois
Johnson (August 21, 1931 - October 31, 2020) belonged to Boston Lesbian & Gay
Political Alliance, Daughters of Bilitis, and the LGBT Aging Project.
Lois met Sheri Barden, in 1964 and they were married on March 27, 2008. Partner Claire "Sheri" Barden
Queer Places:
156 Warren Ave, Boston, MA 02116
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
Lois
Johnson (August 21, 1931 - October 31, 2020) belonged to Boston Lesbian & Gay
Political Alliance, Daughters of Bilitis, and the LGBT Aging Project.
Lois met Sheri Barden, in 1964 and they were married on March 27, 2008.
Lois Hilda Johnson was born on August 21, 1931 in Stoneham, MA. She grew up in a duplex in Everett surrounded by a loving extended family. The Christian Science faith she was raised in was a constant source of support her entire life. Lois attended Boston University and received a BA in Education and a Master's Degree in Journalism. After graduating, she moved briefly to San Francisco and worked for the Presidio Army Base, then returned to Boston and worked at the Christian Science Monitor. In the early 1960's, Lois started working at WGBH, first with Julia Child and David Ives, and then as a producer – traveling around the country to make educational programs for young minority children. When funding for the educational programming dried up, Lois got her realtor's license and spent 40 years tromping up and down the streets of Boston. If you named an address in any part of the city, she would know where it was.
Lois Johnson first realized she was a lesbian in 1957-58 when she had moved to California but felt compelled to keep communicating with a woman she had known. She quickly moved back to the East Coast to become lovers with the woman she initially left behind and they were in a relationshio for 5 years. Because her lover was a vocalist and Johnson played the organ, they knew the entire Organ Guild, which was primarily gay men. Johnson came out to her brother and sister-in-law, very devout Unitarian, through a 10-page letter in 1963. Then in 1964, Johnson's male friends introduced her to Sheri Barden. When Barden was in the army in the 1950s, it seemed to her that all the women around her were gay, but she never connected with them. Barden told her parents she was a lesbian, but her father never understood what she was saying. Her mother tried, but the two were never close. Furthermore, her mother had never liked anyone Barden went out with until Johnson. Then, "she felt she had gained a daughter. We got along fine," recalled Johnson. The night they met, Sheri was dressed up while Johnson was all in black. Barden thought Johnson was haughty and aloof but when Johnson played the piano, she knew they would spend the rest of their lives together. Johnson worked at WGBH and despite its liberal atmosphere, she was careful to tell no one about Barden even as she brimmed with excitement of new love. Though the couple was friendly with Jan Chase, who restarted the Boston chapter of the DOB in 1968, the two were reluctant to get involved because they worried about their jobs and the type of women they'd meet there.
From her 30s until she died, Lois was a powerhouse in the gay and lesbian rights movement. For 20 years, she was President of Boston's Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), which was the only lesbian organization with chapters across the country in the 1970s. She and her partner, Sheri, were also very active in the LGBT Aging Project and had starring roles in Stu Maddux's film, Gen Silent. At the time of her death, she was working on a book project chronicling the lives of lesbians in the DOB. One of the happiest moments in Lois' life was getting legally married to Sheri in 2008.
Lois Johnson passed away peacefully at home in Jamaica Plain on October 31, 2020 of natural causes. She was 89 years old. She is survived by her partner of 57 years, Sheri Barden.
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