Eleanor Rogers Johnson

Eleanor “Ellie” Rogers Johnson of Brewster died on November 6 following a fall at home. Ellie and her twin brother Winslow were born January 4, 1944 in Boston–bringing joy to a family struck by grief as her father, Lt. William Winslow Smith, had been killed in action in Germany the prior October. Her mother, along with her grandmother, aunts, and uncles (and later her adoptive father Lockhart "Buck" Rogers) offered her a childhood full of family, art, music and education. Ellie was a proud member of the founding class of Boston’s Commonwealth School (1962) and graduate of Mount Holyoke College (1966).

Ellie met her husband Peter on Cape Cod in 1962, when she was working at the Casserole Kitchen and he at Mayo’s Farm Kitchen. They married in Orleans in 1967 and settled in South Hadley, MA where Ellie worked for a time in the Admissions office at Mount Holyoke. They raised two children and Ellie spent the majority of her career as the WGBY-TV Auction Manager–a job which both fulfilled her and allowed her to spend her summers on the Cape.

Throughout her life, Ellie delighted in adventures with Peter, her children, grandchildren and many, many cousins. She hiked the White Mountains and the Grand Canyon, sailed along the coast of Maine, and enjoyed the island of St. John. There is no place she was more at home than on the Cape, where her family’s roots stretch back over 300 years and where she loved hosting gatherings small and large–including a Thanksgiving feast for 75 cousins!

An introvert at heart, Ellie, or Tutu as she was known to her grandchildren, cherished quiet moments, whether tending her tomato plants, feeding the birds from her deck, watching the seagulls on her roof when the herring would run, or–with good humor–overseeing her extroverted husband. She was a talented gardener and artist. Ellie loved music and was an accomplished alto and tenor, singing with the acapella Mount Holyoke V8s and choral groups in Western Massachusetts and on Cape Cod. Some of her favorite moments were spent on Cape beaches searching for the perfect stone.

Ellie and Peter retired in Brewster, where she served on the Board of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and volunteered for the Brewster Conservation Trust and the Brewster Swap Shop, among other local organizations.

Ellie is survived by her husband Peter, children Christy Johnson (Derek Halberg) and Richard Logan-Greene (Patricia), grandchildren Caden, Eleanor “Nora”, Kira, Hadley, Eleanor “Ella”, and Reed; her twin brother Winslow (Susan); sisters-in-law Martha Johnson, Jennifer Johnson, Nancy Johnson, and Carolyn Goetz (Stewart); nieces and nephews Alice Martinson (Jeff), David Rogers, Beth Johnson, Daniel Johnson (Sable), Kathryn Goetz, Andrew Goetz (Sarah) and countless beloved cousins.

The family will host a celebration of her life on Cape Cod over Memorial Day Weekend 2023. Memorial donations may be made to the Brewster Conservation Trust (brewsterconservationtrust.org), the Commonwealth School (commschool.org/give/), or Mount Holyoke College (www.mtholyoke.edu/giving).