Lora Bell Johnson Cleveland

Celebration of life: 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, 2015 at Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel. Interment: 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 13, 2015 in DFW National Cemetery. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, May 11, 2015 at Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel.

She was born in Brownwood, Texas on November 29, 1936 to Ruby Bell and Walter Johnson. Her family moved to Lampasas when she was about 12 and finally to Ft. Worth when she was a freshman in high school. She made many lifelong friends in Handley and enjoyed frequent reunions throughout the years since her graduation in 1955. She married after high school and had two children, Angela (Dollar) Bandy and Eric Dollar. While she was raising her children, she attended UTA and achieved her BA and MA in English.

She had an entrepreneurial spirit. She opened a children’s wear store in 1973 in Weatherford, Texas, and operated it for six years, expanding to two stores, with the other one in Mineral Wells. She then became a licensed real estate agent, opened a film developing store in Keller, Texas, taught English at TCC, had a retail joint venture with her daughter in Breckenridge, Texas, wrote and published a children’s book and had her hand in many other projects.

In 1988, she married Buster Cleveland, a former Handley classmate, and they settled in the Meadowbrook area, where she became involved in civic activities such as Citizens on Patrol and C.E.R.T. She was also involved in the Fort Worth Collectors Study Group because of her love of collecting beautiful things, especially cobalt glass. Other passions included gardening, painting, reading, cooking, and keeping in close contact with her family and numerous friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents, and her brother, Kelly Johnson. Survivors are her husband Buster; children Angela, Eric, and Buster Jr., grandchildren Hannah Cleveland and Courtney Cleveland, Roland and Heather Thornhill and Robert Thornhill, Jace and Keli Bandy and Justin and Carroll Bandy.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the American Diabetes Association or Universal Hospice of Fort Worth.