Carol Marie Johnson

 Carol Marie (Dietz) Johnson died unexpectedly March 6, 2019, at Phelps County Regional Medical Center of natural causes. She was 80 years old, born July 26, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest child of William E. Dietz and Bertha (Lorey) Dietz.

Carol graduated from Webster High School in Webster Groves, Missouri, in 1957, but spent most of her adult life as a Rolla resident.

She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Rolla, and she had an independent spirit (some might even have said stubborn). She was intelligent and generous.

She loved to travel, whether it was planning family vacations, traveling with her husband to international locations such as Japan, Brazil, and Germany, going to Las Vegas to gamble with her best friend, or taking bus tours to places such as Washington, D.C., and New York City.

She enjoyed bowling, gambling, crafts ranging from flower arranging to ceramic painting to knitting, Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, watching movies, and playing cards. She loved animals, whether it was pets such as her poodle Susie and her cat Pepper, or watching and identifying the birds at her backyard feeder.

Carol was preceded in death by her parents and by siblings Charles Dietz, Kenney Decker Dietz, and Verna (Decker Dietz) Gruebel.

Surviving are her daughters, Deborah Lockridge of Birmingham, Alabama, and Patricia Moore of Ottawa, Illinois; her granddaughter Capra Lockridge of Birmingham, Alabama; her sister Barbara Dietz (Bill “Gordon”) Wilson of Lebanon, Missouri; and former spouse Richard Johnson of Peoria, Illinois.

Special thanks to lifelong friend Pat Look; to her “Jill of all trades” helper for the past decade, Mona Brown; and to the helpful and caring folks at Rolla Cremation and Memorial.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, in honor of Carol’s love of animals, donations may be made to help build a new animal shelter in Rolla; more information at www.saverollaanimals.org.