Johnson, Selma Rich Platt (1902-1993)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 30 Sep 1993 p. 8

Birth date: 1902

text of obituary:

NEWTON & VICINITY

Selma Rich Platt Johnson, 91, died Sept. 25 at Schowalter Villa Retirement Community in Hesston. She was a high school teacher in Moundridge and Walton in the 1920s and '40s and was on the faculty or staff of Freeman (S. D.) Junior College and Washburn and Doane colleges. In 1951 she founded Meadowlark Homestead in rural Newton, a mental-health facility, and was director until 1965. She was Kansas chairwoman of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and chairwoman of the Kansas Clearinghouse on Civil Rights. Services will be held Oct. 3 at Bethel College Mennonite Church, North Newton. Survivors include a son, Dwight Platt of Newton; a daughter, Zona Galle of Liberty Hill, Texas; a stepson, Clifford Johnson of Boston; a stepdaughter, Christine Johnson of Winson Salem, N. C.; five grandchildren and two great-granddaughters. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Ferry Platt, in 1938; her second husband, Herman Johnson, in 1989; a son, Joseph Platt; and three brothers, Wilbur, Willis, and Eldon Rich.