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Daffodils have bloomed and tulips aren't far behind. Soon, thousands of people will descend upon the La Conner flats to enjoy vividly colored fields here.

It's hard to imagine, any among the throngs of visitors appreciating the striking spring landscape more than Joyce Johnson, long a bright and engaging fixture with the La Conner Civic Garden Club and related organizations at the local, district and state levels. Johnson recently died at age 105.

"Joyce was most certainly a treasure to all who knew her," said Kim Good-Rubenstein, president of the La Conner Civic Garden Club. "Her legacy can be seen in every flower at the La Conner Civic Garden Club."

Johnson was likewise admired in and around La Conner for a florid writing style that defined her prose and poetry, samples of which she submitted over the years to the Weekly News.

An endearing presence at the annual Pioneer Picnic in La Conner, Johnson often wrote about the area's history, much of which she witnessed firsthand after moving here from her native North Dakota in the 1940s.

Born in 1918, Johnson carved out a niche in the Skagit Valley starting with a three-decade career at radio station KBRC in Mount Vernon.

She recalled in an essay written about the famed Seven Cedars dance hall how the opportunity at KBRC came about.

"My younger brother was the program director (at KBRC)," Johnson wrote. "He told me there would be an office job opening at the radio station soon. The traffic manager was the wife of one of the announcers who had found a job elsewhere and she would be leaving with him. Hoping my high school typing skills were still with me, I made an appointment for an interview with the station owner. Somewhat to my surprise, I got the job."

Johnson noted how Jim Nelly, one of the station's "record spinners" – Johnson's term – approached local bandleader Harry Lindbeck about holding teenage dances at Seven Cedars, a former dairy barn and roller rink.

Johnson and the KBRC staff pitched in on the venture, which proved wildly successful.

"I was hired as chaperone for the girls," said Johnson. "Some of the others (from KBRC) would be bouncers."

Among the popular bands that played at Seven Cedars, Johnson wrote, was the still active and La Conner-based Esquires. Johnson cited as a major highlight from that era the night teen idol Bobby Vinton performed in-person at Seven Cedars.

Johnson's compositions were inspired by the beauty of La Conner and the Skagit Valley, particularly the tulip fields that were near her doorstep.

"She excelled at writing about her thoughts and feelings, her joys and sorrows, and sharing her poems with family and friends," one of her two daughters, Avis Ziebell, recounted in Johnson's obituary prepared by family members.

In 2018, as she approached her 100th birthday, Johnson compiled her written work into a volume entitled "Lifetime Memories in Verse." It was available at Seaport Books in La Conner and on Amazon.

Garnering heartfelt appreciation were the poems Johnson penned for loved ones on their wedding days: one to the bride, one to the groom.

Johnson's legacy was further bolstered in 2022 when she took a stand for farmland by finalizing a conservation easement on her 57 acres northeast of La Conner near the corner of Bradshaw and Calhoun roads.

"My brothers and uncle were farmers, but they never owned their land," Johnson said at the time. "They would be so happy to know that I own this land. My father would be, too. And now it's protected."

The parcel has been leased since the late 1970s to the Roozen family, which often plants it in tulips.

The conservation easement drew praise from Skagit County Commissioner Lisa Janicki.

"The future of farming is more secure because of the Johnson family's decision to protect this agricultural land," she said in 2022.

For Joyce Johnson – as she demonstrated repeatedly through a life well-lived – any land capable of producing flowers should be considered hallowed indeed.