Carol Lynn Johnson Horne

Carol Lynn Johnson Horne’s mortal life ended on March 9, 2024 (her son Bucky’s 50^th birthday) when pulmonary fibrosis took away her last breath in her Sandy, Utah home. She was 78.

Carol was born to Marjorie Towns and Arthur Johnson on May 18,1945 in Chicago, Illinois.  The oldest of four children, Carol spent her childhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she played hide-n-seek and ‘school’, ice skated on the pond near her home, trudged through the snow to get friends to come out to play, took outings to Lake Michigan, participated in Girl Scouts, earned money babysitting, and buried her favorite pet bird, “Cookie”. For the rest of her life, she remembered the day a neighbor taught her to blend colors with crayons, starting her lifetime love of color.

During high school she participated in art and drama clubs.  Carol loved the arts, where she could work with colors and create her own things rather than what others told her to create.  As a teenager she dreamed of being an interior decorator or an airline stewardess.  Surrounded by relatives in Chicago, Carol learned to play Scrabble and make malted milk with Grandma Towns; played gin rummy with Grandpa Towns; and traveled to Sweden with Grandma Johnson to visit their ancestral roots. She graduated from Glenbrook North High School, in Northbrook, Illinois in 1963.  

In 1965, at age 19, along with her sister and mother, Carol was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She bought her first car, a Chevy Corvair, and drove West to attend Brigham Young University.  She worked full-time as a secretary while dabbling in fun night classes such as fencing, interior decorating, Book of Mormon, wood working, watercolor, and Spanish.   She was the only girl in her swimming class and the BYU chess club.  Highly motivated to learn, she taught herself how to sew, allowing her to make gowns for herself and friends. Carol had an active social life in Provo, where her intent was primarily to meet a nice Mormon boy.  And that she did!

Roger Marion Horne and Carol Johnson were married on May 1,1970, in the Salt Lake City Temple and started their family in Phoenix, AZ.  Children came fast and furious, which was great for Carol, because she LOVED babies.   She bore six children in eight years.   Through it all, Carol’s desire to create expanded further.  With her beloved Viking sewing machine that Roger gifted her for Mother’s Day, she became a sewing fiend – overalls, pinafores, dresses for herself, dresses for her girls, jumpers, wall-hangings, ornaments.  With so many young children to care for during the day, she would stay awake late into the night to sew and create.  During those many years of nursing babies and changing cloth diapers, her simple pleasures included playing Rook and mahjong with close friends, selling Avon, and watching Days of Our Lives (for nearly 50 years).

In 1979, Carol and Roger moved to Great Falls, Virginia.  Two more boys joined the family.  Both Roger and Carol loved little children and shared a dream of having all eight of their children as 2 year-old toddlers at the same time for just one day.  They often thought, “Wouldn’t that have been fun?” With her meticulous organization skills and practical mindset, she served in church callings that benefitted children, youth, and women of the Church, always doing her best in each job. Around this time, during the 1980s, Carol taught herself to quilt after taking one introductory class.

Carol and Roger moved to Sandy, Utah in 1992.  Now that the children were older she had time to work in a jewelry store and a quilt shop – her two loves.  Carol could cross-stitch, smock, knit, crochet, paint, crewel, and sew.  She created ceramics, calligraphy, jewelry, water-colors, oil paintings – often with irises as the subject matter.  But her foremost love was quilting.  After she made 300 quilts, she stopped counting.   Her 8 children, 20 grandchildren, and numerous friends are beneficiaries of her artistic, delightful, colorful handiwork - one legacy she leaves to her descendants.

Mom, is the Spirit World more colorful than you imagined it to be?  Hug Dad and TT, and give Bucky the Spoon.

Carol is preceded in death by her parents, her husband Roger Horne, her son James “Bucky” Horne, her daughter Tiffany Horne Lewis, and brother Neil Johnson.  

She is survived by sister Dianne Johnson Sano, brother Brian Johnson, children Katie Horne Peabody (Wade), Gina Horne Sipos (Victor), Kimberly Horne Taylor (Braden), Jennifer Horne Breese (James), Christopher Horne, David Horne, two in-law children Candace Nielsen Horne (Bucky) and Don Lewis (Tiffany), and 20 grandchildren.

In her practical, no-nonsense fashion, Carol requested that no services be held in her honor.  Her wish was to be cremated and interred with Roger in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Like sands through the hourglass, so were the days of her life.