Ex-legislator Johnson, 64, found dead in her home

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 23, 2008 at 2:31 p.m.
Updated May 23, 2008 at 11:33 p.m.

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A former state senator who had failed to return her friends' phone calls was found dead in her Adams County home Thursday after the sheriff's office was asked to do a check.

Friends of Joan Johnson, Democrats and Republicans, are mourning her death. She was 64.

"Joan was very bright, very smart, very verbal, and she was fun," said Karen Reinertson, president of Front Range Community College.

"There's a broad group of people who are going to miss her very much."

Friends say Johnson became sick with what seemed like respiratory flu after a trip to Las Vegas this month. She canceled several outings, saying she was too ill to go anywhere.

"I said, 'You really need to get to a doctor,' " Reinertson said she told her friend.

Reinertson called the sheriff's office Thursday after hearing from a lobbyist who also was unable to reach Johnson.

"If she wasn't already dead I'd like to wring her neck for not getting to the doctor," Reinertson said Friday.

Services are pending.

The Adams County Coroner's Office said it would be four to six weeks before an official cause of death is known.

Johnson was born Dec. 4, 1943, in Denver, and graduated in 1965 from the University of Colorado. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tehran, Iran, in 1966.

The Adams County Democrat was twice elected to the state Senate, in 1990 and 1994.

"One of the most important pieces of legislation she carried requires that people who want their credit report get one free copy," said former Rep. Ann Ragsdale, D-Westminster.

Former Senate Minority Leader Mike Feeley, D-Lakewood, called her a "conservative populist."

"It wasn't that she didn't suffer fools gladly, it was she didn't suffer fools at all," he said, with a laugh. "She was a good, solid lady, and I'm going to miss my friend.

Johnson, a lobbyist before she became a legislator, briefly returned to lobbying after leaving office in 1998. She then worked at the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.

bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5327

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