Nadine Anne Johnson

November 6, 1922 – April 19, 2015

Born in Brussels, Belgium Nadine grew up with a blended family of 10 people. She was still a teenager when the German Occupation started and endured the horrors of war. She departed for the US a few years after Liberation and met and married her first husband, Robert C Donovan in Washington, DC. They moved between the US and Europe with his assignments with the CIA. They divorced and she met Louis H Johnson while vacationing with her two children; they married shortly afterwards. Louis was in the Army and they lived in Germany until he retired in 1962. They moved to several places in the US with his engineering jobs but finally settled in Dickinson. Nadine became a professor of French at Alvin Junior College and then the University of Houston. This is when Nadine was able to fulfill a lifelong dream to own a Borzoi, a Russian Wolfhound. Soon she was thinking of showing then breeding her dogs until she established a line that is now world-renown under her kennel name, Rising Star Borzoi. Within a few years, she had accomplished the rare achievement of having one of her dogs obtain both its American and Mexican Championships. The rest is history. Over the next fifty years, even with a short move to Fairbanks, Alaska while Louis worked on the pipeline, she continued to improve the breed with her selective and rare litters. She was an icon long before she and Louis moved to their permanent home in Colorado Springs in 1976. Then she studied and became a judge of first the Borzoi breed and then all hounds. The next nearly forty years found her at dog shows either handling her own dogs or judging other people’s dogs. She became a highly admired mentor with the other Borzoi owners. Having won championships for hundreds of her dogs, she went on to compete at distinguished national and international dog shows with much success. Nadine also achieved personal awards for her high ideals and efforts for the breed, being one of the first an inductees to the Hall of Fame in the American AKC Borzoi Club. She mentored many who went on to establish their own successful lines from one of her own Rising Star breedings and she gave several classes on breeding and handling. She was even featured on Animal Planet . Her experiences and dedicated work sent her literally all over the world where she met and was respected by the famous and well-heeled. She met astronauts and actors, musicians and judges, and even did some writings herself on her favorite subject. The Borzoi. But she was multi-faceted. She coupled her love of dogs with her love of horses. Being an exceptional horsewoman all her life, she participated in steeple chases and fox hunts in Europe and competition trail rides in the US. Nadine also loved to travel and was nicknamed “the road warrior” for all the miles under her belt. In these later years, she intertwined dog shows with personal travel. One of her biggest highlights was a month long tenting safari in Tanzania and Kenya with her daughter. She was vital, dynamic and looking forward to and planning to attend the next Borzoi National this May until the moment of her sudden passing away. Nadine lived a long, happy and active life and leaves behind so many saddened four-legged and two-legged champions. She is survived by her daughter, Marianne and spouse Paul Hastings; her stepsons Floyd and spouse Sue Johnson and Will Johnson; her beloved grandchildren Brett his spouse Paige Johnson, Alysa Johnson, Jay and his spouse Kimberly Hastings and four great-grandchildren who knew her as Gigi.

In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in her kennel name, Rising Star Kennels to the Borzoi Rescue C/O Liz Duncan-Burge, 23132 N Lopez Lane, Dix, Illinois 62830