Karina Kay Johnson

Karina Kay Johnson, owner and prior operator of a small ranch near Waller, Texas, died February 20, 2023. She was born in Houston, Texas on March 16, 1949. In 1963, she received awards for achievement in Spanish and Science from Spring Branch Junior High School and graduated cum laude with the class of 1967 from Memorial Senior High School. In December 1970, she graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts and attained a Master of Arts in Spanish from the University of Houston in August 1973.

She loved poetry and music and authored many poems and wrote songs which she played on her guitar. She was an avid lover of animals in general, and horses specifically, and she donated to almost every organization which protected and promoted the lives of animals. She designed her own home on her ranch and a beautiful horse barn where horses and horses of others were stabled. She became familiar with the Prairie View Trail Riders Association, and for many years, she and her father participated in the annual trail rides from Hempstead, Texas to Houston, Texas in advance of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with the Prairie View Trail Riders. She not only bought and shared the use of a full size trail ride wagon with the other trail riders, but she also owned and often drove in an antique doctor's carriage that would be pulled by a single horse.

Due to her ever increasingly physical disabilities, in approximately 2008, she sadly had to leave her ranch and move to Houston where she could receive much needed assistance. In 2021, she made a contribution of her beautiful trail wagon to the Prairie View Trail Riders Association, which honored and displayed it during the recent February trail ride from Hempstead to Houston, and it was named Rockin' K. in Karina's honor by the Prairie View Trail Riders.

During the last 15 years of her life, she was blessed, as were her immediate family members, by having the most wonderful and loving caregiver, Ofelia Moreno, that God could provide, along with love and assistance from Ofelia's sister, Angie, and Ofelia's adult daughters. Additionally, she was blessed by the most loving and caring member of the hospice personnel, Edwin Gomez, who so carefully monitored her condition and kept the family members continuously informed.

She preceded in death by her father, Elliot A. Johnson, in 1993 and her mother Katherine R. Johnson, in 2002. Survivors include her sister, Nancy L. Lucke, brother, Glenn H. Johnson, and his wife, Diana E. Johnson, six nephews and nieces, Jessica, Gregory and Melissa Johnson, and David, Glenn and Laura Lucke, and 13 grandnephews and nieces.

While living on the ranch, she was an active member of Saint John's Lutheran Church of Waller, Texas and the pastor thereof will be officiating at the celebration of life.

The family will receive friends at the Memorial Oaks Funeral Home, located at 13001 Katy Freeway, Houston, Texas 77079 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, followed by a celebration of life service in the funeral home's chapel beginning at 1:00 PM on Friday, March 10, 2023.