Lynn Stockdale Johnson, 80, passed on to her next adventure on March 12, 2023, following an extended illness. She leaves behind her husband of almost 49 years, Daniel; her daughters, Marci Rheinschild and Jenna Johnson; her granddaughters, Kaitlyn (and David) Bennett and Caroline Rheinschild; her once and always son-in-law Randy Rheinschild; Daisy the llama and Ciudad the alpaca; a cadre of kitties led by her favorite tabby, Tigger; and her beloved Collie, Liberty. Lynn was predeceased by her parents Richard J. and Phyllis J. Stockdale, and her brother Steven L. Stockdale.
As the chief genealogist in the family, Lynn often said that she came from a long line of wandering souls who rarely put down roots. Indeed, her own life saw many travels and she lived in multiple towns across Washington State, Oregon, Florida and Georgia during her lifetime. She always considered Baker City, Oregon, where she graduated from high school in 1961, her hometown. The friendships she made there lasted throughout her life and tales of their youthful shenanigans entertained (and scandalized) several generations of her family.
Lynn worked a variety of interesting jobs in her youth, including tending bar and running her own daycare, and met her husband Dan while they were both employed by Red Carpet Flying Service in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1972. After their marriage in 1974, Dan became a commercial airline pilot and Lynn devoted her time to raising her children, with occasional side gigs as Girl Scout Cookie Mom, wildlife rehabilitator, and backyard chicken wrangler, to name just a few. In 1993, Lynn achieved a lifelong dream when she and Dan moved, along with their daughters and son-in-law, to a 40-acre farm in White County, Georgia. For the next 30 years, she was in her element: raising cows, driving her tractor, collecting farm dogs and barn cats, planting flowers for the deer to eat, and watching her grandchildren grow up.
One of the great loves of her life was the flock of 60+ Corriedale/Cotswold cross sheep she established on her farm. They gave her decades of joy, heartbreak, hard work, and thousands of pounds of glorious wool which she gleefully carded, dyed, and spun into yarn. She always had a knitting or weaving project in the works and was rarely to be found sitting down without a spinning wheel in front of her or knitting needles in her hands. Lynn was a founding member of the Georgia Mountain Handspinners Guild (now the Georgia Mountain Fiber Arts Guild).
Lynn loved books of all kinds (and just books in general), history (particularly British and Russian), genealogy (she was the tireless curator of our family history), houseplants (which Dan and Jenna will do their best to keep alive), Highland and Hereford cows (she once asked for 3 Highland Cows for Christmas), lavender (cuttings of which she may or may not have stolen from the gardens of Cawdor and Balmoral Castles in Scotland), dark chocolate (which can be found in hidden caches throughout the house), horses (particularly her childhood mare Ilene and her show horse Missy), and baby pandas and elephants (just because). She was always stepped up when animals needed rescue, from dogs and kitties to horses and lambs. She raised three orphaned baby raccoons (which was an amazing childhood memory for her daughters) and once saved a family of motherless baby skunks (who are not scentless when they’re little, no matter what your friends tell you).
Some of her fondest memories were from three trips she made to Scotland: first with Jenna in 1997 and 2000, and again with Dan in 2001. When Lynn’s health issues forced her to slow down and she could only see the world from her computer screen, she spent many happy hours viewing live cameras across the globe, passing the time watching the ships at Lerwick Harbor, checking in with the puffins on the Shetland Islands, and enjoying the crowds at Temple Bar in Dublin. Her favorite cameras were the Explore.org brown bear cams of Katmai National Park and Preserve, where she knew all the bears by name.
One thing Lynn hated was funerals. As per her wishes, there won’t be a funeral or memorial service. Lynn wanted to be cremated and have her ashes, along with her mother’s, spread over her favorite places on the farm she loved so much. That way she can be part of this land forever— blooming every spring with the daffodils and whispering with every summer breeze through the tall grass. Her family will honor her wishes on a beautiful spring day soon.
If you’d like to do something special in her memory, she would have been pleased to see a donation made in her name to the Katmai Conservancy, to help protect the bears she loved:
https://www.katmaiconservancy.
To share a memory or a condolence with the family visit Mrs. Johnson’s online guestbook at andersonunderwood.com.
Anderson-Underwood Funeral Home, 2068 Highway 19 North Dahlonega, GA 30533
