Children’s book author
MONTGOMERY — Elizabeth “Libbie” Harrover Johnson died Nov. 18 at Stonebridge at Montgomery. She was 89.
Born in Manassas, Va., she was a former resident of College Park, Md. and Rochester, N.Y., but lived in Princeton for most of her life.
She was the author of eight children’s books, the most popular of which were “The Mysterious Trunk,” “Horse Show Fever,” “The Pony That Didn’t Grow” and “The Several Secrets of Will Monroe, A Boy’s Tale of the Civil War.” The latter had been adapted for a play by the Gray Ghost Theatre Co. and will premiere in 2009 at the Community Performing Arts Center at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
She was also author of several history books, “History in a Horseshoe Curve;” “The Story of Sudley Methodist Church and its Community,” about the Sudley Methodist Church in Manassas, Va.; and “100 Years and Still Counting, and Still Counting,” histories of the New Jersey Audubon Society.
Active in community affairs, she founded the Meals on Wheels program in the Princeton area and volunteered to deliver meals for 32 years. She was on the board of the New Jersey Audubon Society and served as its secretary for many years.
She attended Virginia schools and graduated with honors from the University of Maryland where she met her husband.
She and her late husband traveled the world, she constantly adding to her life list of birds — over 700 — and he taking photographs.
Wife of the late Dave Johnson, to whom she was married 62 years, she is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, David H. Johnson and Kathryn Halbower of New York City; daughters and sons-in-law Katherine W. Johnson and Richard Schmeltzer of Minneapolis and Elizabeth R. Johnson and Turner Price of Lambertville; grandchildren William W. Johnson, Jaya H. Saxena and Thomas H. Johnson; step-grandchildren Richard C.G. Schmeltzer and Olivia and Jack Price; step-great-grandson Andrew Schmeltzer; and many Harrover nieces and nephews in the Manassas, Va., area.
Burial will be private at the Sudley Methodist Church in Manassas, Va.
Memorial contributions may be made to Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross of Central New Jersey, 707 Alexander Road, Suite 101, Princeton, NJ 08540; New Jersey Audubon Society, 9 Hardscrabble Road, Box 126, Bernardsville, NJ 07924; or the Libbie Harrover Johnson Legacy Fund c/o Gray Ghost Theatre, Attn: Ken Elston, 10900 University Blvd., MSN 5D2, Manassas, VA 20110 (fund for the play).

