Anita Johnson, the majority owner of Eugene Weekly and the driving force behind this newspaper’s dedication to public service and community journalism, died of cancer on Dec. 15 at her home in Eugene. She was 95. Read her full obituary here. 

Community members, staffers, friends and former staffers remember a woman who was both kind and a force to be reckoned with. 

•••

 I will miss her greatly.

Anita and Art were/are genuine city mothers and fathers. This means people who use their time and resources to love and care for their community and all who live here. I mean this in the deepest and broadest sense. They both sought justice tenaciously for all, using their knowledge,skills, and tools of their trades. They indeed were progressive icons. They sought to protect this beautiful place we live in and all its natural wonders for all of us. They were soldiers in the protection of, and demand for good governance,equality, and democracy.

To say thank you and well done is inadequate.

— Kitty Piercy, former Eugene mayor

•••

I’ll always love and deeply appreciate Anita for the amount of creative freedom she gave us all. 

She had her opinions and would certainly share them but ultimately trusted in whatever I wanted to try. Not everything works but that’s how you learn and grow. She really helped my artistic growth in that way.

And my relationship with Anita extended beyond EW work. With living across the country from my own family, she helped fill a void for me of having an encouraging and inspiring elder in my personal life. 

— Todd Cooper, photographer and former Eugene Weekly art director and production manager

•••

Of course my first memory of Anita is about pickleball and how she brought it up just about every week at the editorial meeting. 

I think when I first started at EW her big pitch was “Pickleball, it’s America’s fastest growing sport. What are we doing about it?” Or, “My gardener is the best pickleball player in the city.” This was back in 2018 before the pickleball craze really started. This wasn’t about Anita being obsessed with the sport but her being on top of things.

Even though she was 89 years old then, she was still on top of things, whether local politics, sports or music. She was usually right about trends, as she was with pickleball (and I had to write the story again in 2023). 

I also remember the times that Anita made political candidates cry. (Naming names of crying politicians might not be best for the obit, but I always enjoyed sitting in endorsement interviews with her). She asked tough questions. She was one of my motivating factors to prepare well for interviews to match her gusto.  

What meant most to me was that Anita was encouraging. If the EW’s pocketbook was limitless, she probably would’ve sent us writers wherever we wanted (like how she wanted me to go to Houston to write about homelessness or travel to the Ducks football bowl games). And she took time to read out stuff and give us praise for our work. It was always nice to hear her come in on Thursdays for the managers’ meeting and compliment our work or when I could hear her exclaim a “wow” on Tuesday afternoons from Editor Camilla Mortensen’s office when she read news stories — or the occasional, “Something’s missing from this story.” 

I’’ll always think highly of Anita, be grateful for all that she did to make me a better writer/journalist/person, and hope I can be an influence for others as she was for me. — Henry Houston, former Eugene Weekly news reporter and editor

•••

Anita Johnson was a lot of things: fearless, generous, kind, but my favorite quality in Anita was her persistence. Camilla once told me that Anita will repeat herself sometimes not because her memory is weary, but because when she has an idea that she believes in she refuses to back down. Whether that idea was a pickleball story or a deep dive on the most powerful players of Eugene; she would remind us week after week.

When I told Anita that I was quitting the Weekly to live inside a national park she asked if there was anything she could personally do to make me stay and write. She asked me this every week until my last day and every week I almost took her up on it. Her damn persistence! It was so heartwarming it made my head spin. 

When my last day finally came and went she told me “When a door opens, walk through it.” It was the kind of quote that never truly leaves your mind. May that it never will. — Emerson Brady, former Eugene Weekly news reporter

•••

The first time I met Anita was when I had lunch with her and Camilla to talk about possibly working as an arts editor at the Weekly. After we had worked out some details, I said that yes, I would take the job. It sounded like fun. Anita looked right at me and said, “That’s an important thing, to have fun in life.” She was right. — Bob Keefer, Eugene Weekly arts editor emeritus

•••

She was a force to be reckoned with, even in her 90s. When I worked at EW she was the heart of the paper. As a young journalist fresh out of college she never once saw me as naive. Instead, I will always remember how she treated me with competence and support, even though I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. 

Even during a global pandemic she still came in once a week so we could have meetings outside with masks on. She insisted on coming in because the paper meant that much to her (and no one could tell her no). So she came to those meetings with a list of ideas for stories, and was constantly thinking of ways to bring in more money for the paper (including putting in her own money) so it could stay running during the pandemic. 

And that damn woman didn’t take a profit from any of it. EW was not a business to her, but was an investment in local journalism, which she cared so much about. In all my time living in Eugene, I had never known someone who knew so many people in that city. I admired the way she was respected by others in the community, but wasn’t afraid to question city leaders. 

In short, I was inspired by everything she was as a woman, a newspaper owner and a journalist. I feel so lucky that I got to know her for a short while. I’m thankful for the legacy she has left, but it’s hard to picture Eugene without her. I wish I could be there for one last Wednesday meeting with her. — former Eugene Weekly news reporter Taylor Perse 

•••

Anita was a wonderful presence every time she walked in the building. I’ve seen my share of owners and publishers. She was the best. She championed the paper and its employees, and she is missed. — Dan Buckwalter, Eugene Weekly copy editor 

To share your memory of Anita Johson, please email Editor@EugeneWeekly.com.