Cleta Johnson

Cleta was born on a farm in Navarro County, Texas; the fourth of six siblings. She would quickly let you know of her Texas roots by singing a couple bars of “Texas or Texas”. She and Tom met at Navarro College and married on September 8, 1956. They moved to Fort Worth and had three sons; David, Mike, and Mark. In 1964 they moved to Raleigh, then back to the Dallas area in 1969, and finally settled in the Raleigh area in 1974. She worked as a secretary/office manager for several area churches then for Meredith College. She completed her degree at Meredith in 1987. She worked at Meredith, first in the Career Services Dept then in the Art Dept. She loved working with the students at Meredith. She also loved flowers and sewing and her church family at Forest Hills Baptist Church. A talented seamstress from an early age, she sewed for herself, but mostly for her grand-daughters, Hailey and Adria, and for orphan girls in North Carolina, Africa and Ukraine. When she and Tom built their home in Fuquay-Varina, they had a sunroom for flowers and her sewing machine. Soon, more machines were added until she had five machines with just a bit of space left for her flowers. After back surgery for scoliosis, she and Tom moved to Waltonwood in Cary in 2012 where she helped with the flowers for as long as she was able. She and Tom felt blessed to have many friends at Waltonwood.

She will be missed by all, including her beloved grandchildren, Lindsey, Gabe, Adria, Hailey, Ryan, Russell, and Austin.