Christina DeVoe Johnson of Pinewild passed away on May 16, after a brief, and completely unexpected illness, she was eighty-six. She is survived by her husband, and best friend of sixty years, Joel Munson Johnson Jr.
Chris was born July 14, 1933 in Red Bank, New Jersey to the late Victoria Gregory DeVoe, and Harold Smith DeVoe. She graduated Red Bank High School in 1950, and continued her education at the University of Delaware, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in education in 1954. A lifelong educator Chris also earned a Master’s degree in education from Rutgers University in 1958, and a second Masters in clinical psychology from John F. Kennedy University in 1987.
She started her career in education as a primary school teacher in Colts Neck, New Jersey, a village that was then nothing but farms and is now a prosperous bedroom community for New York commuters. She taught at the same school as her mother, and eventually became the principal of that school. She was the founding principal of the San Ramon Valley Christian Academy in Danville, California.
A Jersey Shore girl from birth, Chris met her future husband, Joel, at Elliot’s Beach in Sea Bright, where he was a lifeguard. They were married in 1960 at Tower Hill Presbyterian Church in Red Bank, which her late father had helped found.
Joel and Chris, as she was called, followed his career with Atlas Products, a division of Standard Oil, as it took them from New Jersey, to Illinois, to Kansas, and to California where Joel ultimately retired in 2003after over forty years with the firm in sales and marketing. They retired to Pinehurst in 2003, and settled on the golf course of the Pinewild Country Club.
Chris was an avid tennis player and golfer. She served as president of the Pinewild Ladies Golf Association. She loved to travel to their timeshare in Mexico where she would delight in sitting by the pool, indulging in her passion for reading, many times going through a book a day.
In addition to her husband Joel, she is survived by four nieces and eight nephews. She organized a family reunion in 2017 in New Jersey where all of them, plus grandnieces/nephews, and three great grandnieces were able to look at old family photos and recount with glee and much laughter, the stories of happy times past.
Chris’s dry humor, grace and ability to laugh at any situation will be missed by her devoted husband, many friends, and dear family more than can be imagined.
Online condolences may be left at: www.bolesfuneralhome.com
Services entrusted to Boles Funeral Home of Pinehurst.
