For a couple of years," her daughter said, Mrs. Johnston was fitted out with "baton, big boots, and big hat" leading the band at football games and Memorial Day and Fourth of July parades.
And on one occasion, she was a guest pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, though the circumstances are lost to memory.
Though she had not studied music with any school, "she was extremely talented" at the piano and earned a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York City.
Instead, she studied from 1950 to 1952 at Pennsylvania State University but had to leave because of the death of her father, John.
She then studied at the Peirce Business School in Philadelphia and at a modeling school before marrying in 1955.
For a time, she was an executive assistant at Radio Corp. of America before beginning her work as a medical secretary.