Dolores Emily ‘Dee’ Johnson
August 28, 1938 – August 12, 2026

Dolores Emily “Dee” Johnson died peacefully at home on August 12, 2026, at the age of 87.

Dee lived a remarkable life shaped by love, family, friendship, art, adventure, service and an enduring curiosity about the world. She traveled to 125 countries, crossed oceans and continents, bicycled through Europe and Ireland, traveled by RV across North America, volunteered in communities around the world, and gathered an almost endless supply of stories along the way. Yet her greatest gift was her love of people. Wherever she went, Dee made friends, and she carried those friendships with her throughout her life.

Dee was born on August 28, 1938, at Queen of the Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to Harold Franklin Drew and Dolores Maria Mancillas. She grew up in Pinole, California, a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area, and attended Richmond High School.

At a May Day dance during high school, Dee met the love of her life, Milo Johnson. After graduating in 1957, she attended the University of California, Berkeley, for a year while Milo attended Redstone Arsenal Missile School in Huntsville, Alabama. Missing him deeply, Dee called and asked whether he wanted to get married. He said yes. She left Berkeley, drove to Huntsville and on a hot, humid July 4 in 1958, Dee and Milo were married.

Their marriage became the foundation of an extraordinary life together — one filled with family, friendship, creativity, service and adventure.

After Milo graduated from missile school, they moved to Germany in 1959, where he was stationed in Miesau. Their first son, Bradford, was born on April 13, 1960, in Landstuhl, Germany. While living there, Dee and Milo traveled throughout Europe whenever they could, beginning a lifetime of exploring the world together.

The family eventually returned to California, where Milo worked for Chevron Research in Point Richmond. Their daughter, Ingrid, was born on December 1, 1962, followed by their son, Kurtis, on February 15, 1964.

Milo was soon employed by the National Science Foundation, and the family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. While there, Milo was sent to Antarctica for two months, at a time when women and children were not permitted to accompany him. Dee remained behind and cared for their three young children until his return.

After a year in New Zealand, the family returned to California and moved to Chico, where Milo earned his master’s degree in chemistry from the California State University, Chico in 1967. He was soon offered a Chemistry teaching position at the newly established College of the Redwoods campus in Eureka, and the family made a final and lasting move to Ferndale.

Ferndale became home.

There, Dee and Milo developed a wide circle of friends and became part of a lively community of artists, craftspeople, musicians and other creative individuals. Their home was often filled with potluck dinners, laughter, conversation and celebration.

During these years, Dee discovered pottery and began throwing pots, eventually turning her love of ceramics into a profession. She and Milo purchased the Withywindle storefront in Ferndale, which became a beloved gathering place and haven for local artists. Dee loved discovering artists, encouraging their work and sharing it with the community. She also brought treasures home from her travels with friends, purchasing woven goods and other handmade items during trips traveled to Mexico and Greece to sell at the Withywindle.

Dee’s love of travel was inseparable from her love of people. She was never content simply to see a place; she wanted to experience it, meet the people who lived there and return with a story.

In 1972, Milo took a sabbatical from College of the Redwoods, and the family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a year. In 1973, Dee’s dear friend, who was managing the Withywindle, came to Scotland, and Dee and her traveled together through Spain and Ireland.

In 1974, Dee traveled with another friend through the Greek islands. While they were in the Peloponnese, war broke out between Turkey and Cyprus, and the ferries were being used to transport troops. To get home, Dee and her friend found themselves aboard a converted fishing boat with a peg-legged captain, a broken transmission and a nude female passenger. It became one of the many unforgettable stories Dee carried with her.

In 1979, Dee traveled through Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia before continuing to Uruguay to visit Bradford, who was spending a year there as an exchange student.

In 1981, Dee and Ingrid traveled through Italy and Greece and eventually reached Istanbul, Turkey. At the famous Pera Palace Hotel, Ingrid met the love of her life, Ismail El Idrissi. Milo later joined them, and their travels continued through Budapest, where Dee discovered what she considered the world’s smelliest cheese, and onward to Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden, where they visited Viveca, who had spent a year as an exchange student with the Johnson family in 1978.

Dee and Milo also hosted Suzanne Kamm of Wetter, West Germany in September of 1980. Suzanne loved it so much she stayed for a couple years.

Dee continued traveling throughout the 1980s, visiting Guatemala and England in 1982; Germany and Yugoslavia in 1983; Mexico in 1985; and Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai in 1986.

In 1988, Dee and Milo took an around-the-world trip that included Hawaii, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bali, Petra in Jordan, Portugal, Spain and Austria. They also began taking bicycle trips with friends, spending six weeks biking through Germany and Austria, along the Danube River, through Bratislava and into Hungary.

In 1991, Dee welcomed her first grandson, Tariq El Idrissi, born on January 23.

That same year brought profound sorrow. On September 16, Dee lost her beloved son Kurtis in a logging accident. He was only 27 years old. His death changed Dee deeply. In the midst of her grief, she traveled to Fiji to visit her dear friend and began the long process of healing. Dee also obtained her scuba diving license that year.

She also closed the Withywindle and stepped away from pottery. The store and her creative work had been central to her life, but it was time, Dee needed to let them go.

In the years that followed, travel once again became a source of connection, renewal and joy. Dee and Milo bicycled through Ireland in 1993 and traveled through France, Ireland and England in 1994. They visited Costa Rica in 1995 and returned to France for another bicycle trip in 1998.

That year, Dee and Milo celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with a spectacular cruise to Alaska. In 1999, they took another bicycle trip through France and Italy. That same year, they bought their first RV during a train trip to Chicago and Missouri, beginning a new chapter of road travel throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

When Milo retired in the summer of 1999, they sold their home on Van Ness and began traveling even more extensively. Their adventures were increasingly joined with a commitment to service. Dee and Milo became involved with Habitat for Humanity, helping build homes wherever they were needed. Their volunteer work took them to Ghana, Ecuador, Newfoundland, Poland, Romania, Macedonia and many locations throughout the United States, including Taos, New Mexico.

In 2002, they traveled through South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho, visiting friends before continuing to Ghana for another Habitat build.

In 2005, Dee and Ingrid returned to Fiji. Ingrid earned her scuba diving license, and mother and daughter spent the remainder of the month scuba diving together. They also dove during a trip to the Cayman Islands in 2012 which was Dee’s last scuba diving trip at the age of 73.

In 2006, Dee traveled with friends through Vietnam and Cambodia. Her journeys continued with trips to Tasmania, New Zealand and Australia in 2010 to visit friends; a Panama Canal cruise in 2013; a trip to Hawaii with her daughter and friends in 2015; and a cruise through Russia that same year. Dee and Milo also took a cruise around South Africa, visiting many countries along the way.

One of Dee and Milo’s favorite places in the United States was Sedona, Arizona. They had a timeshare there and spent several months of many years enjoying the red rocks and desert landscape as they traveled across the country in their RV.

Dee and Milo spent many summers in South Lake Tahoe, where they volunteered at the Tallac Historic Site. Dee made birdhouses and sold them in the gift shop, where she worked, while Milo demonstrated blacksmithing. Friends and family visited them there and enjoyed the area together for years as they volunteered.

After 59 years of marriage, Dee lost the love of her life when Milo died on December 18, 2017. His passing was a profound loss. They had shared nearly six decades of marriage, raising a family, building a community, traveling the world, serving others and creating a lifetime of memories together.

In 2019, just before the COVID-19 lockdown, Dee met Ron Kuhnel, a widower who shared her love of travel, adventure and life. What began as a friendship grew into a loving partnership.

Ron became part of Dee’s life and home in Ferndale, and together they continued to explore the world. Even during the pandemic years, they found ways to share their love of adventure. They traveled to Switzerland and Germany for a bicycle-and-boat trip with friends, made many trips to Mexico and Hawaii, returned to Sedona and embarked on an extraordinary 51-day cruise around South America that included Antarctica.

Dee also loved playing cards and Ron and her gathered friends from Ferndale in weekly matches of Shanghi. Dee would pretend she couldn’t remember how to play as she got older, loved to challenge others, and won more than she ever lost. Dee would always carry a couple decks of cards with her and would get whomever she could to play. It didn’t matter if she was in Mexico or some other place in the world she loved to teach others how to play Shanghi and loved to win.

After six years of adventures together, Dee and Ron were married, celebrating a relationship built on love, friendship, companionship and their shared delight in discovering new places and meeting new people.

By the end of her life, Dee had traveled to 125 countries, touching nearly every corner of the globe. Yet the number of countries was never what mattered most to her. What mattered were the people she met along the way, the friendships that lasted for decades, the stories that grew richer each time they were told and the memories she brought home to share with family and friends.

Dee leaves behind a family that was at the heart of everything she did. She leaves behind children and grandchildren who carry her stories forward, friends from nearly every chapter of her life, and a community of people whose lives were touched by her warmth, generosity, curiosity and unmistakable spirit.

She leaves behind memories of a young woman who drove across the country to marry the man she loved; a mother raising three children in places as far away as Germany and New Zealand; an artist throwing pots in Ferndale; a shopkeeper opening the doors of the Withywindle to artists and friends; a traveler crossing continents by bicycle, boat, train, plane and RV; a volunteer building homes and serving communities around the world; and, later in life, a woman who found love and adventure again with Ron.

Her life was not simply measured in miles traveled or countries visited. It was measured in relationships.

Dee lived a big, colorful, generous life.

She loved deeply. She traveled widely. She served others. She endured great loss and continued to find joy. And she never stopped being curious about what might be waiting just beyond the next horizon.

She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her, and her stories will continue to be told for generations to come.

As previously mentioned Dee was preceded in death by her son, Kurtis in 1991, her first husband and lifelong partner, Milo in 2017; and her sister, Diane Havens, in 2022.

She is survived by her husband, Ron Kuhnel; her son, Bradford Johnson, of Tennessee; her daughter, Ingrid El Idrissi and her husband, Ismail, of Fortuna; her grandsons, Tariq El Idrissi and Kurtis Johnson; and her great-grandson, Tiberius El Idrissi.

A celebration of Dee’s life will be held at the Ferndale Community Center at Firemen’s Park on Saturday, November 14, 2026, beginning at 2 p.m. All are welcome, and friends and family are encouraged to come together to share their favorite stories, memories and moments with Dee. Please send any photos you would like to share that will be posted on a photo board at the celebration to: Rae Shiraishi at oliviasgram10@gmail.com or Ingrid El Idrissi at curves4fit@yahoo.com.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Dolores Emily “Dee” Johnson may be made to:

Planned Parenthood Northern California (PPNorCal)
Development Department
2185 Pacheco Street Concord, CA 94520
Phone: 925-676-0505
Email: info@ppnorcal.org

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Dee Johnson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.