Ms. Lynn M. Johnson

My mother, Lynn Martine Johnson, died at the age of 72 on December 26, 2025 in her Berkshire home, with her dog Layla by her side. She was born on November 15, 1953 in New York; daughter to Alexander & Gloria Johnson and sister to Allyson. Lynn attended Oberlin College where she received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Conservatory of Music with a minor in Russian in May of 1975, and then played two summers in Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1976 and 1977, where she had the opportunity to play under one of her greatest inspirations, conductor Leonard Bernstein. She went on to become a professional symphony musician performing as a violist with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera and professional symphony orchestras in Ohio and Alabama. She was also a labor negotiator and organizer for the American Federation of Musicians for nearly 10 years, negotiating collective-bargaining agreements for professional symphony musicians across the United States and Canada, as well as administering complex union contracts and writing articles for trade publications. For the AFM she traveled around much of this country, living on the road through hot summers without air conditioning and her cairn terrier Boogie riding co-pilot. She was devoted to the union and went wherever musicians needed her sharp wit and detail-oriented mind to help them with their struggles, fighting for reasonable pay and fair working conditions. Later on in life, she obtained a paralegal certificate in civil litigation, with honors, from the University of San Diego in 1995, and became a senior paralegal at Gordon & Rees starting in 1997, where she won the distinguished paralegal of the year award there in 2007. She continued to use her legal knowledge at Berkshire Health Systems in Pittsfield Massachusetts, where she worked as a paralegal aiding the medical profession and was appreciated there, as always, for her hard work, sense of humor, and charismatic nature, until she retired in 2017. Lynn Johnson was a force of nature and caring friend with an uncanny knack for inspiring those around her, making lifelong connections throughout her many career paths that she honored until the end of her life. She excelled at everything she did and achieved greatness wherever she put her mind to it. She leaves a great absence in her wake and she will be missed. A celebration of life will be held for her at her sister’s home in Jersey City on May 3, 2026. Please contact Allyson at allysonthesplicer@icloud.com for exact time and location if you are able to attend

Ms. Lynn M. Johnson

November 15, 1953 - December 26, 2025