by Moses Ross, Treasurer

The Multnomah County Democratic Party lost a good member of our community recently. We are saddened to hear of the passing of Linda Johnson. Many of you knew Linda through her work as an union activist and as a former local Democratic Party leader. Our condolences go out to her family.

I had the pleasure of working with Linda since 2002. We both served as officers of the county Democratic Party, her as Vice Chair and myself as Communications Secretary. The county party at that time was chaired by Jim Robison, with Linda as Vice Chair, Jim Davis as Treasurer and Ernest Adams as Recording Secretary.

Linda was an "optimistic cynic". She had a great deal of political realism that served her well in her work with the party. That probably came from her union background. I wish I knew more about her background because I'm sure that her and Mary Botkin, Dianna McCoy, Judi Mehrens and others raised hell more than once. Linda always fought the good fight.

One thing that I admired about Linda was that she took her party leadership position very seriously. Linda taught me through her words and actions the relevance of our county party to the local political process and to have a respect for the party and for the leadership position in which we serve our party.

As Vice Chair, she understood that the leadership served as an example to the membership and as such, would always be there at the event or the meeting, doing the organizing and the preparation and making sure that things got done. That was leadership. Not asking someone else to do something that you are not prepared to do.

They say that 80% of success is just showing up. Linda was successful in her activism because she always showed up. You could count on her being there and getting things done, beaming that great smile of hers.

Linda, thank you for your service to the Democratic Party. We are a better party because of you. Thank you also for being a friend. We are better people because of you. You will be missed.

Moses Ross
Treasurer
Multnomah County Democratic Party

Memorial details can be found here.