Dolores Marie (Pagel) Johnston

Dolores Marie Johnston was born on January 30, 1927 in Yuma, Colorado, to August William Pagel and Dorothy Marie Pagel (Erion). She was the youngest of three children and had a brother, Gilbert, and a sister, Irene. She grew up on the family farm in Yuma County. She liked the outdoors and we have pictures of her on their Shetland pony and riding her tricycle. She liked hanging around with her brother Gilbert on the farm, seeing what interesting and fun things he got up to. She learned to drive when she was nine and drove a truck (I believe when she was a bit older) to take the grain to the elevator during the wheat harvest. She also told of riding bareback on their horse with a friend.

She attended a country schoolhouse, a Lutheran school (she was a life-long Lutheran) and then Yuma High School for three years, where she was a drum majorette. She moved to Denver with her parents in 1944 and did her senior year at South High School, where she graduated. She went on to complete two years at the University of Denver (D. U.), where she was a member of a sorority and where she met her future husband, Floyd Ernest Johnston, Jr. He had grown up mainly in California, but was persuaded to come to Denver to go to college by a couple of his Navy buddies when they got out of the service.

Dolores always enjoyed going to the mountains and had fun skiing with Floyd, his buddies and their girlfriends.
She completed her training in the Department of Radiology at Colorado General Hospital and was certified as an x-ray technician in March of 1948. She and Floyd were married on June 12th of that year.

They were soon off to the Los Angeles area, where Floyd got a job with U.S. Motors. Dolores worked as an x-ray technician at a doctors' clinic across the street from where they lived in Compton. With the arrival of their first son, Lynn, she left that occupation to become a stay-at-home mom. She was always a good, caring, mother and raised her sons in the Christian faith, reading them daily devotions and Bible stories. The family attended church regularly and the boys attended Sunday school. She was also a very good cook.

In 1950, the young family returned to Denver, where Floyd completed his master's degree in math. In 1952, the family moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, where Floyd started his career with IBM, which lasted 35 years. This was in the early days of computers and Floyd found the work very interesting and challenging. Their second son, Kent, was born in Poughkeepsie in 1953.

In 1954, the family moved to Albuquerque, NM, where their third son, Dean, was born in 1957; in 1961, to Woodland Hills, CA; in 1964, back to Albuquerque; in 1968, to Thousand Oaks, CA (minus Lynn, who was attending UNM, and stayed in Albuquerque); in 1971 to Boulder, CO (minus Kent, who stayed in CA, where he married Mary Catherine O'Shea in 1972). IBMers were known to say that IBM stood for "l've been moved."

Dolores and her sons enjoyed staying with her parents at their home in Denver for about a month during summer vacations. Along with her mother, we had fun going to the city's parks, amusement parks, the zoo and museum, driving to the mountains to spend a couple of days in a cabin, spending time on the farm in Yuma, CO, and visiting relatives in that area. She also always enjoyed taking us on road trips to interesting places. Later on, the family bought a 20-foot trailer and went on a number of trips with it, including a trip to the Sierras in California, and one long trip through Yellowstone and up into Canada.

When Floyd retired in 1987, they bought a fifth-wheel trailer, a "dually" pick-up truck, sold their house and traveled around the western states for about a year. Then in 1988, they bought their home in Rio Communities, NM, where they remained for the rest of their lives. They joined Valley Lutheran Church in Los Lunas in 1989, where they were quite active and made a lot of friends. The couple were active in their local AARP group and were recognized by the NM Secretary of State for their role in getting the telephone service in the Belen area to be part of the toll-free service of the Albuquerque metropolitan area. Dolores was also a member, for a time, of the Horizon Ladies, who were affiliated with the Tierra del Sol Country Club and later with the Red Hat Ladies. She and Floyd went on some memorable cruises to the Caribbean, to Mexico and to Alaska.

Dolores passed away peacefully on December 25, 2024. She was preceded in death by her husband, Floyd, in 2013, her grandson, Evan Johnston, in 2014, her sister, Irene Van Overberghe, and her brother, Gilbert Pagel. She is survived by her sons Lynn, Kent and Dean Johnston, Kent's wife, Mary Johnston, her grandsons, Lucas and Dillon Johnston, their respective wives Rhonda and Dalia, and her great-grandchildren, Avery, Ryan, Aidan and Charlie Johnston.

A memorial service for Dolores will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2025, at 11:00 AM, at Valley Lutheran Church, 3259 Highway 47, Los Lunas, NM 87031, (505) 865-6169. A reception with light refreshments will follow the service. The church is planning to livestream the service on YouTube and Facebook. It will also be saved on those platforms for a time.

Arrangements are being handled by the caring professionals at the Noblin Funeral Service Belen Chapel, where an online guest register is available at www.noblin.com

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