Death and Legacy
After serving in the Senate, Johnston resumed his legal practice. He died in Richmond, Virginia, on February 27, 1889, aged seventy. He was conscious until his death and was aware that he was dying. On March 1, his family brought his body from Richmond to Wytheville, where he was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.
On May 11, 1903, a ceremony was held to install the portraits of deceased judges in the Washington County Courthouse. David F. Bailey was the speaker that presented the portrait of Johnston. In his speech, he described Johnston:
| “ | He was not an orator, but a strong debater—powerful in clean cut argument. He was a dangerous opponent. You never caught him asleep. You never saw him demoralized... He was temperate in all things. In nothing was he a fanatic. He was the friend of the poor. Need I say this in Washington County? His liberality was limited only by his ability to bestow. He was at all times the young lawyer's friend. | ” |
Johnston was outlived by his wife, Nicketti, who died on June 9, 1908, aged eighty-nine.
Read more about this topic: John W. Johnston
Famous quotes containing the words death and, death and/or legacy:
“One is apt to be discouraged by the frequency with which Mr. Hardy has persuaded himself that a macabre subject is a poem in itself; that, if there be enough of death and the tomb in one’s theme, it needs no translation into art, the bold statement of it being sufficient.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“It is conceivable at least that a late generation, such as we presumably are, has particular need of the sketch, in order not to be strangled to death by inherited conceptions which preclude new births.... The sketch has direction, but no ending; the sketch as reflection of a view of life that is no longer conclusive, or is not yet conclusive.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)