Barbara Johnson, former Princeton resident and Town Topics Associate Editor

Barbara Lamb Johnson died peacefully on June 18, 2024 in Concord, Massachusetts. She was 92.

For Barbara, the features of a good life included a career as a newspaper reporter, a great love for the outdoors, rowing crew, leadership roles in community organizations, and importantly, raising her four boys.

Born March 8, 1932 in New York City to Horace Lamb and Beatrice Pitney Lamb, Barbara grew up in New Canaan, CT. At age 10, with asthma, she was sent to school in the dry climate of Arizona. Later she credited the years in Arizona, and time at Westover School, back East, with building self-reliance and discipline so important to her life.

In 1949 she enrolled in Vassar College. She married her first husband, Franklin Reeve, a year later, and soon they had two sons, Christopher in 1952 and Benjamin in 1953. The marriage ended in divorce. She moved to Princeton, NJ to begin a new life and married Tristam Johnson in 1959, gaining four beloved stepchildren from Tristam's first marriage. Two more boys, Jeffrey and Kevin, arrived in the early 1960s.

Barbara soon became actively engaged in the Princeton community. During her six decades there, she played important roles in many organizations, including Carnegie Lake Rowing Association, the Chapin School Parents Association, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament, Community without Walls, Friends of the Princeton Public Library, the Nassau Street School PTA, the Princeton Hospital Fete, Trinity Church of Princeton, and the Vassar Club of Central New Jersey.

In 1975, Barbara joined the reporting staff of Town Topics, a weekly paper in Princeton. She wrote and edited the music, theater, religion, and obituary sections, while also covering Township Committee, planning and zoning boards, and events at Princeton University. She particularly enjoyed the chance to write longer profiles of notable Princeton residents, including Svetlana Alliluyeva (Joseph Stalin's daughter) and John McPhee.

She took pride in her accuracy in reporting. When she retired in 1997, the Township Committee and Planning Board both issued proclamations of appreciation for her work, and the Township Mayor held a retirement party in her honor.

At age 57, Barbara took up rowing on Princeton's Carnegie Lake. She started in eights and progressed to single scull, winning the event for her age group at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, MA in 1999, as well as a fine collection of medals from other events. She was selected by Princeton residents to carry the Olympic torch on part of its journey past Princeton to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In younger years, Barbara yearned "to hike every trail and read every book." She embraced an active retirement in the same spirit, traveling on Elderhostel trips, sometimes including grandchildren. She visited her children in Vermont, Martha's Vineyard, and more far-flung locales including West Africa, Jerusalem, and Bali. She also continued to write in retirement, taking on several book-length projects. In 2016, she moved to Newbury Court retirement community, in Concord, MA. She spent her last years there, close by her sons and many of her grandchildren.

Barbara was predeceased by her son Christopher Reeve and by daughter-in-law Dana Reeve. She is survived by three sons and their partners: Benjamin Reeve and Katharine Sterling, Jeffrey and Lynsie Johnson, and Kevin Johnson and Linda Lynch; by four stepchildren: Kate Johnson, Tristam Johnson Jr., Thomas Laabs-Johnson, and Elizabeth Johnson; by ten grandchildren: Matthew, Alexandra, Will, Sebastian, Julia, Trista, Conner, Theo, Lucy, and Annie; and by six great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister Dorothy Lamb Crawford, niece Susan Crawford and nephew Peter Crawford.

A celebration of her life will be held in Duvall Chapel at Newbury Court, Concord, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 11:30 am, with a reception to follow at Newbury Court.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to either of two organizations important to her: Friends of the Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon, Princeton, NJ 08542 or Carnegie Lake Rowing Association, PO Box 330 Princeton, NJ 08542-0330.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.