In Memory

Margaret Atkinson (Afflis Johnston) - Class Of 1916

Mrs. Margaret Afflis Johnston, 68, a Delphi native and former Democratic national committee woman from Indiana, died Monday in her home, 5354 North Meridian St., Indianapolis, of a heart attack. Services will be this morning, Thursday, at 11 a.m. in Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis. Burial will be in Masonic Cemetery at Delphi. Mrs. Johnston was for 15 years a member of the Indiana women’s prison board. A close friend of the late Henry F. Schricker, she was, during both his terms as governor, the director of probation for Indiana. She started in Democratic politics in her hometown, Delphi, as a Deer Creek township trustee and later was both Carroll County vice chairman and second District vice chairman. She was the first woman manager of an automobile license branch in Carroll County. From 1960 to 1964 she was the Democratic national committee woman from the state and in January 1965 she was elected president of the Indiana Democratic Women’s Club, a post she held at her death. Born in Delphi June 11, 1898, she was the daughter of Frank and Harriet White Atkinson. She was graduated from Delphi High School in 1916 and lived at Delphi until moving to Indianapolis in 1949. Mrs. Johnston was the principal organizer of Psi Iota Xi sorority at Delphi and served as its president. At Indianapolis she was active in the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre and Herron Art Museum. She was chairman of Mayor John J. Barton’s Charity Solicitation Commission, a member of the Kennedy Memorial Committee and the American Legion Auxiliary. Surviving with her husband, Leroy O. Johnston, Sr., are a son, William R. Afflis, Indianapolis, a professional wrestler known as “Dick the Bruiser”; two stepdaughters, Mrs. Barbara Fish of Melbourne, Fla., and Mrs. Mary S. Hill of Santa Anna, Calif.; a stepson, Leroy O. Johnston, Jr., of Cincinnati; two grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Ethel Patterson of Delphi who was convalescing at the Johnston home at the time of Mrs. Johnston’s death.

Flora Hoosier Democrat April 20, 1967