Betty Brinson Johnston's Obituary
Betty Mildred Brinson Johnston was born March 5, 1924 in Coppell, Texas and passed away November 20, 2016 in Plano, Texas. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Phillip E. Brinson, and second husband, George H. Johnston. She is survived by son, Bill Brinson and wife Paula, and daughter Toni Salm-on; grandchildren Dawn Brinson and husband Skip Roark, Anne Badger and husband Brent, Steve Salmon and wife Juanita, Lisa Devine and husband Josh, and Bud Brinson; great grand-children James Badger, John Badger, Grace Salmon, Casen Badger and Reagan Devine; and her dog Aspen. Family will receive friends on November 27, 2016 from 3-5pm at Restland Funeral Home. The funeral service will be held on November 28, 2016 at 10:30am at Christ Church Plano, 4550 Legacy Dr., Plano, Texas 75024, followed by a reception at the church. A graveside service will be held at 2pm at Restland Cemetery, 13005 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75243 (www.restlandfuneralhome.com). In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Faith Mountain Fellowship Church in Red River, New Mexico (faithmountainfellowship.com), and Christ Church Plano (christchurchplano.org). Betty Brinson Johnston lived her one and only precious earthly life to the maximum, fueled by her ever-growing grasp of the glory and grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After a tragic and lonely childhood and adolescence of rejection and abandonment, she married Phillip Edwin (“Pete”) Brinson who introduced her to the love of God in Christ Jesus. She then spent over two decades struggling to absorb and understand the truth of her acceptance in Christ and his church, her forever family. Betty and Pete started their 49 year marriage in Denton, Texas, and Bill and Toni were born in 1946 and 1948. In the early fifties, the family moved to Carrollton, Texas where Betty focused on making a beautiful home, raising Bill and Toni, and participating in community activities, including leading the effort to build Carrollton’s first public swimming pool, which she man-aged for several years. After Bill and Toni left home and after Pete’s near-death car-train collision in 1965, Betty and Pete moved to Plano, Texas. They began practicing radical generosity to people with physical and spiritual needs. Pete supported Betty’s Bible teaching ministry in their home until his death in 1993. Betty married retired Air Force Colonel George H. Johnston in 1994 and moved to New Mexi-co, where she continued her practices of generosity, teaching the Bible, and hospitality, espe-cially in her Aspen Cove cabin in Red River, New Mexico. Her family and friends have special memories of mountain visits in that beautiful setting. After George’s death in 2005, Betty sold their Albuquerque home and made Aspen Cove in Red River her permanent home. By 2008, she connected with Faith Mountain Fellowship in Red River and continued her Bible teaching min-istry both in her home, at the church, and even in southern Colorado. She experienced being loved as “Miss Betty” by a warm church fellowship of people of all ages. As her health declined, she left Red River for the lower altitude of Taos, living in an apartment in the Taos Retirement Village from 2014-2016. She stayed connected with her Faith Mountain Fellowship family, and she continued to teach the Bible to friends and residents of the retire-ment village. She developed a special friendship with her neighbor Zelma Goldstein, a retired fabric artist from Manhattan, who soon believed the Gospel and joined the Faith Mountain Fel-lowship family. As Betty’s health continued to decline in the summer of 2016, she returned to Texas, arriving at her daughter Toni’s home in Plano, Texas on September 25, 2016. Betty planned to visit a week or two before launching out into a teaching ministry in a small Texas town. However, her health declined precipitously, and she remained in her daughter Toni’s home until she died peacefully on Sunday, resurrection day, November 20, 2016. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his servants” Psalm 116:13
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