Stella Lorraine Johnson Self

UPDATE MEMORIAL FUNERAL  SERVICE
Funeral Services will be held on Friday, January 7th at noon at the LDS Chapel located at 2702 E. Evergreen Avenue. Lorraine’s family will be there an hour prior to meet with friends, family, and neighbors. The service will also be live-streamed at this link: https://youtu.be/gEhhiaCLw5E
 
“Where there’s music, there’s Lorraine!”
Born June 5, 1926, in Salt Lake City to John Arthur Johnson and Ruth Christina Cecelia Hellberg Johnson, Lorraine grew up in an artistic household, setting the stage for her lifetime of singing and playing the piano. Coming from a long line of artists, authors, poets, and musicians, Lorraine’s innate musical gift was evident from a very early age when it was discovered that she was playing her sister’s piano assignments by ear. Lorraine would later study piano with Dr. Asper at McCune School of Music, after her piano teacher, Miss Whitney, stated that she had taught Lorraine everything she could. Lorraine shared her gift with everyone over 95 years and she felt that it was truly a calling from The Lord. She volunteered to play in the lobby of the Conference Center, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building every Wednesday evening for nearly a decade. Many people spoke of her “touch” at the piano and how they enjoyed the feeling and emotion she expressed through her music.
Although Lorraine’s family moved quite a bit when she was young, she managed to make friends easily from Hawthorne Elementary, to Irving Junior High & through her years at South High School. In 2018 she attended her 75th high school reunion & of course played the piano for her classmates and friends. She fostered & maintained those relationships throughout her life. Along with her siblings, she often spoke fondly of their formative years in the Sugar House area, and of the sacrifices their parents made to ensure they had a good childhood experience.
Lorraine met her sweet husband Ralph through mutual acquaintances while going to school at the University of Utah. The two of them were dating other people at the time, but it soon became clear that they were meant for each other. They were engaged on Christmas Day in 1947 and married six months later. Spending the early years of their marriage in Chicago while Ralph finished podiatry school, they eventually settled in the East Millcreek area after moving back to Utah in 1952. While raising six children, Lorraine filled her “spare time” with numerous church callings, which – more often than not – drew on her musical talents. In addition, Lorraine was a founding member of several quartet ensembles throughout her lifetime, another way she shared her gift with family, friends, and strangers. She also spent many years recording commercials in the ‘50s & ‘60s for local and national radio stations with a group called Notable Ads. Lorraine delighted in singing with the Utah Symphony Chorus during Maurice Abravanel’s tenure. With a true appreciation for the arts, Lorraine attended as many cultural activities as possible – live theater, ballet, opera, symphony concerts, museum exhibits – she embraced it all.
Lorraine was quietly competitive. She and Ralph played doubles tennis and they often competed in tournaments while on vacation. Mom did not like to lose and would be upset if she thought Ralph threw the match because he felt bad for their opponents. As a result, they proudly brought home several trophies. Not just tennis…she was always doing something active. Whether it was riding her 10-speed (before it was cool) with her close friend – sometimes clocking 30 plus miles in a day, or swimming laps in the pool, snow skiing with the family, going for walks, or taking a belly dancing class on a whim, Mom was always on the go.
After Ralph’s untimely passing in 1982, Lorraine went back to school at LDS Business College. Shortly after beginning her studies, she was asked to be the Administrative Assistant to the college president, and she held that position until retiring in 1991. She was asked to come back and finally retired for a second time. Her dedication & work ethic are traits to be admired.
After retiring in 2001, Lorraine was able to devote more time to her “projects”, family history research being a top priority. She and her sister Roz created several volumes of historical scrapbooks for her parents, and she compiled her own life journals. Keeping a visual journal of our family experiences, milestones, and traditions, it was rare for Mom to be without her camera. What treasures she left us in the countless photo albums she meticulously compiled.
Grateful for the opportunity to travel to many places, Lorraine was thrilled to have the chance of taking a trip to Sweden in 1992. This connected her to the birthplace of her parents. It was a dream come true, as her parents never made it back to their homeland after coming to The States. During that trip Lorraine was able to find a cousin that she’d only known from pictures. She was warmly invited into their home and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon sharing family stories. The wonders of technology have kept those connections going since that time.
Of course, no summer was complete without several trips to the family cabin at Bear Lake. Countless memories have been made & joyful times have been shared with friends and family for nearly 70 years! Day-long tennis matches, hours on the boat waterskiing, picking raspberries, eating shakes, dutch oven dinners, and s’mores by the fire pit are treasured memories for all of us. In her later years, she loved catching a sunrise, anticipating the moon, listening to the birds, and watching the extraordinary color of the water change with the weather. She often described it as ”a study in blue”.
Lorraine could be a tease on occasion and she liked to joke around with family, friends, and neighbors. You had to pay attention though because her soft-spoken delivery was very subtle. Never afraid to act silly and have fun with her children and grandchildren, she always joined in and made us laugh. Mom believed in the adage that “the business of life is the acquisition of memories.” Maintaining traditions was very important to her, so coloring easter eggs, carving pumpkins, decorating gingerbread houses, and the beloved Swedish Christmas traditions will faithfully be kept with Mom in our hearts.
For her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, she was ever-present. She rarely missed a practice, performance, recital, game, tennis match, skydiving exhibition, blessing, baptism, graduation, or birthday. Our family shares a collective memory of Mom happily spectating with camera in hand, no matter the event.
You’ve heard of a sweet tooth…well, Lorraine had sweet teeth! She loved ice cream, pudding, cakes, cookies, pies, and mostly ALL THINGS CHOCOLATE. Most recently, she enjoyed earning ‘tips’ (M & M’s) for playing the piano! And one of her last specific requests was “chocolate pudding.”
How we will miss our sweet Mom, but we are left with 95 years of cherished family memories, countless pictures, and choice life lessons that could only come from her. A strong, classy, courageous, graceful, beautiful, talented, funny, loyal, kind, gentle, patient, and remarkable woman…now joyfully reuniting with her dear husband, wonderful family & many friends. We love you!
The family would like to express their deep gratitude for the many hours of compassionate care given to Lorraine by the caregivers at Active Home Health, Hospice and Personal Care – particularly Brittany and Nikki who helped us navigate some difficult times. We will be forever grateful.
Lorraine is survived by her children: Drake (Sue), Gina, Trent (Apple), Todd (Robyn), Brooke, and Paige; 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Ralph; her son, Layne; her granddaughter, Courtney; her siblings, Rosalind, Kenneth, Curtis, Lillian, and Eleanor; her parents, Arthur and Ruth Johnson.
A viewing will be held for family and friends on Thursday, December 9, 2021, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at Memorial Holladay-Cottonwood Mortuary, 4670 S. Highland Drive, Holladay, UT. A private family service will be held on Friday, December 10, 2021, at 1:00 pm, also at the mortuary. A graveside service for family and friends will immediately follow at 3:00 pm at Holladay Memorial Park, 4900 Memory Lane, Holladay, UT. The family is planning an additional service for family, neighbors, and friends in January 2022.
To view the live stream of the services, please follow the link https://zoom.us/j/8015661249
 
Streaming of Funeral or Memorial Services
Memorial Gravesides 2
1. Joining by computer
a. Go to zoom.us in any internet browser
b. Click “join meeting”
c. Enter the meeting id – 8015661249
d. A box will open saying “https://zoom.us wants to open this application”. Click “open zoom”
e. Click “Join with Computer Audio”
f. Click “Mute” in the bottom left hand corner so that your audio does not interrupt the funeral services
 
 
2. Joining by phone or iPad
a. Download the Zoom app
b. Open the app and select “join a meeting”
c. Enter the meeting id – 8015661249
d. Select “join without video”
e. Select “Call using internet audio”
f. Select “mute” in the bottom left hand corner so that your audio does not interrupt the funeral services.
Service Information

Memorial Service
January 7, 2021 at 12:00 PM
2702 S. Evergreen Avenue, Holladay, Utah 84117