Obituary: Donna Rae Johnson, 85, longtime attorney and rights advocate

When Donna Rae (Lambert) Johnson and her husband, a sergeant, were living just outside Augusta, Ga., in the 1950s, they loved to entertain friends of all races from the nearby base. Even the appearance of a burning cross in their yard to protest their open-mindedness didn't stop them.

"Knowing my mom, she probably invited as many black people as she could into the house just to prove a point," said her son, Eric Johnson. "She was always a fighter against things she deemed unjust."

Johnson, an advocate for fairness and a pioneer for women in law, died on April 19 at 85.

Johnson's passion for the law and for helping others was inspired by personal experiences that forever changed the way she looked at the world. She was born in February 1930 in the Twin Cities. Johnson's father struggled with alcohol abuse and as a youngster she saw him strike her mother. The cops came, Johnson told them what she saw and after the cops hauled her father away, her mom packed up the kids and moved away.

It was a time when family law did little to protect single moms, so Johnson's mom went to work as a live-in domestic for a local family. The kids weren't allowed, so Johnson and her siblings were sent to an orphanage until the war came and her mom was able to get a job at a munitions plant.

Johnson graduated from Roosevelt High School at 17, earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota by 20 and after her husband's stint in the military, both attended John Marshall Law School on the G.I. Bill. Johnson, the only woman in her class, ranked third.

Johnson became a licensed attorney in 1956 and when she joined the Ramsey County Bar was one of two women. With young kids at home, she maintained a private practice that enabled her to control her own schedule, focusing on estate issues and family law.

"She was a great advocate for women and women's rights, and when she saw women's rights being denied she took up the cause with great enthusiasm," he said. "As a lawyer, I saw her as being uniquely devoted to her female clients."

Her dedication was obvious, he said, because as a child of divorce and as a woman working in what was then a man's field, she had great empathy for others.

"In the early days, when I started practicing almost 50 years ago, women were very disenfranchised in the courts," he said. "She saw it in the early days when there was a lack of visibility for women, and she was inspired to do something about it."

Eric Johnson said that his mother never missed an opportunity to protect the underdog.

During the 1960s race riots, she confronted the police as they pursued a group of teenagers. In the 1970s, she worked with at-risk youths, and in the 1980s, she was a partner in a minority-owned company. In the 1990s, she worked with an inventor who was trying to help solve food shortages.

On the day she died, she appeared at a court hearing, had a workout with her personal trainer and shared an ice cream cone with her daughter.

In addition to her son Eric, Johnson is survived by another son, Matthew, and daughters Karen Johnson, Diane O'Brien and Linda Johnson. She had several grandchildren, and was preceded in death by sisters, Marlys Orner and Susan Lane. Services have been held.