Barbara Jean Knight Johnson

Barbara Jean Knight Johnson

Thomasville, NC

Barbara Jean Knight Johnson passed away peacefully September 23, 2025 at Brookridge Retirement Community in Winston Salem, N.C.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 AM Tuesday, September 30, 2025 at Our Lady of the Highways Catholic Church, Thomasville, N.C. with interment following at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church Cemetery in Salisbury, N.C. Visitation will be held thirty minutes prior to the funeral at the church. Father Gabriel Carvajal-Salazar will officiate the service. In lieu of flowers please make memorials to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Barbara was born August 6, 1935, in Anamosa, Iowa. The second of six children of Victor and Edna Knight, she was a 1953 graduate of Anamosa High School. Fittingly, she was voted the Valentine Queen her senior year; a sweetness and kindness she exhibited her entire life. She was united in marriage to Kermit Johnson on December 28, 1954. A son, Randy Michael, was born on September 29, 1955. An infant son, Gregory Joseph died shortly after birth.

Barbara worked at Jack’n Jill preschool in Marion, Iowa with her sister, school founder JoAn Knight Herren. With the advent of the interstate highway system, Kermit transferred to the North Liberty DOT. Barbara again joined her sister, who now ran the Little Herky preschool in Iowa City. Later Barbara worked at the U of I East Hall Audiovisual Dept. and retired from the U of I Oakdale Dental College.

As an infant, just beginning to walk, she pulled at a towel and brought a bowl of hot preserves down upon herself, resulting in severe burns on her neck and chest. She was bedridden for an extended period of time and had to relearn how to walk. Adversity served her well when, at the age of 14, Barbara found out she had juvenile diabetes. Her doctor told her she would only live to be 30 years old. With self-discipline, the help of her family and Kermit’s devotion she proved the doctor wrong, living her life fully without ever any complaint, or self-pity. Later in life, if asked, she would talk to young diabetics and doctors to tell them her longevity secrets and provide them hope for a full and happy life.

Kermit and Barbara were married 69 years until his death in 2023. They purchased a run-down house and acreage just outside of Solon, Iowa. Together they brought the place back to life and made it a showplace for their black angus cattle and the natural world. Barbara made the house a home. At the acreage she enjoyed gardening, wildlife photography, snowshoeing, mushroom hunting and an occasional Guinness to celebrate her proud Irish heritage. She couldn’t walk by a weed without pulling it, was a very neat-as-a-pin person and could make a rhubarb pie that would roll your eyes back with its goodness.

Barbara was a devoted and loving daughter. Barbara, Kermit and her brother Keeran and his family helped her mother, Edna Knight, remain in her home until age 104. Barbara’s care for Kermit in his last years was a wonderful example of self-sacrifice for love.

Barbara is survived by her son, Randy, his fiancée Kathy Cockman Spivey and her fur baby grandchild Jaxson the Wonder Dog. Also surviving are her brother Keeren “Fuzz” Knight, and her sister Phyllis (Pat) Carey and numerous Midwest-nice nephews and nieces. She was preceded in death by her husband Kermit Johnson; parents Victor and Edna Knight; sisters JoAn Knight Herren and RoseAnn Opperman; brothers Victor, Michael and Keith Knight; brothers-in-law Kenneth, Leonard and Wilbur “Bill” Johnson and Ivan Opperman; and sisters-in-law Delores (Kula) Knight, Helen, Pat and Patricia Johnson, Maxine Nordman, Wilma Parsons, Alvina Miner, Dorothy Wratten and Garlene Knight.

Many thanks for their support to her neighbor Joanne Gaines, the parish of Our Lady of the Highway, Trellis Hospice and the personnel of Brookridge Retirement Community.