Sharon Coombs Johnston

June 13, 1939 - May 19, 2021

We lost our cherished sister Sharon after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. Some from her 1956 senior class might not remember her well, since to accommodate grandparents, her entire elementary and high school education was spent in private religious schools except for her senior year at South Pasadena High. She flourished there and as her younger sister I always thought of her as very popular.

As the sibling closest in age I remember her as a teenager well, but it was as a profoundly good and caring adult that we'll all remember her best. She held the family together with her loving and thoughtful kindness. Her greatest attribute was that innately pure spirit and I can't imagine the world without her. She was intelligent, well read, musically accomplished, and an artist both with watercolors and the written word, but her greatest talent was perhaps cooking. She became legendary and wrote a massive cookbook for family and friends, which she updated each Christmas with a specialized addenda. I'll miss that update this December but even more I'll miss the generous loving phone call that always came and always uplifted me, because somehow she always knew what I needed to hear. I loved her deeply and was the most fortunate of people to have her for my sister.

She leaves behind her loving husband Doug Johnston; four remarkable children (who would all tell you she was the best possible mother):  Christopher Culp, Susan Sanders, Stephen Culp and Derek Culp; her five siblings (all alumna of SPHS):  Pamela Coombs McKay '63, Randall Coombs '64, Derek Coombs '69, Alison Coombs Jackson '71, and Kevin Coombs '73; along with nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Pamela Coombs McKay '63, sister