Dusty Johnson

Robert Dusty Johnson

It is with great sadness that our family announces that on Tuesday, August 29, 2023, Robert Dusty Johnson passed away. 

Dusty’s life began on December 7, 1949 in Houston, Texas. He was the 4th child of what would total 10 children to O.R. and Elizabeth Johnson.  In 1950 the family moved to Roswell. He attended school at Mt. View School and Roswell High School. During his school years he was a singer in the RHS Chorus. When he wasn’t in school, he was working with the family business.  During his senior year he moved to Illinois to care for his two grandmothers, and he graduated from McLeansboro Township High School in 1968.  

On October 18, 1968, Dusty married his sweetheart, Sharon Adams. About a year and half after they were married, Dusty was drafted in the US Army where he served for two years and nine months during the Vietnam War.  His younger brother Rusty joined the Army and both were sent to Basic Training at Ft. Ord, CA.  The two were assigned to the same Company, Platoon and Squad with Dusty on the bottom bunk and Rusty just above him.  After “Boot Camp” both brothers were assigned to training as UH-1 Helicopter Repairman, and each received their Aircraft Crew Chief wings.

When Dusty returned to Roswell, he and Sharon worked hard and built a family together.  To their union, they welcomed two children, a son, Orland Ray and daughter, Tamra Kay.  They were also blessed with four grandchildren, Gabriel and wife, Marianne, Matthew, Phillip and Rayna and one great grandchild, Lucas.  

Hard work was something Dusty learned as a child and stayed with him his entire life.  He was a skilled heavy equipment operator and he enjoyed a career at Armstrong Construction.  He could operate any piece of equipment he got into and he received several awards for this ability.  

When Dusty wasn’t working, he was busy creating other projects.  He was gifted with the talent of building and constructing projects out of metal.  He was an amazing welder who had the rare ability to see something and be able to build it by just looking at it.  Many friends and family benefitted from this skill as he made fences, gates, trailers, buildings, porches, decorations, etc.  You needed or wanted it, Dusty could make it.  He enjoyed sharing his knowledge by teaching many family members valuable skills like how to drive a stick shift along with how to weld and cut metal.

Dusty and Sharon also enjoyed raising livestock and spending time in the garden.  Dusty loved to sing and play the harmonica and most of all spending time with his grandkids, nieces and nephews.  Dusty and Sharon were inseparable, whether bucking hay in a field, or raising and training Greyhounds in the early days- to working in the garden - they did everything together.  

Left to cherish Dusty’s memory are his wife, Sharon Johnson, daughter, Tamra Johnson Rodriguez and her husband Narciso Rodriquez.  Four grandchildren, Gabriel Rodriguez and wife Marianne, Matthew Rodriguez, Phillip Rodriguez and Rayna Rodriguez and one great-grandchild, Lucas Rodriguez.  Siblings Dennis and Patty Johnson, Peggy Seskey, Rusty and Elaine Johnson, Terry and Anita Johnson, Rocky and Pam Johnson, Randy and Cynthia Johnson and Candy and Ike Beeman. Sisters-in-law Sheila Lawson and Becky Clark, and many loving nieces and nephews.

Dusty is predeceased in death by his son, Orland Ray Johnson; parents, O.R. and Elizabeth Johnson; in-laws Cecil Ray Messer, Catherine Messer; siblings, Richard O. Johnson, Rebecca Johnson Lee and Joe Seskey Jr.; niece, Tammy R. Johnson and nephews, Robert E. Lee III and Kyle Stokes. 

The family will receive friends at LaGrone Funeral Chapel Monday, September 04, 2023 from

3:00 pm -7:00 pm.

Services for Dusty will be Tuesday September 05, 2023 at 11:00 am at LaGrone Funeral Home in Roswell NM.  His nephew, Terry R. Johnson II will officiate.  Interment will immediately follow at South Park Cemetery/ General Douglas L. McBride Veteran’s Cemetery with full Military Honors.  Family and friends will gather at Hobson Hall at the Eastern NM State Fairgrounds for a potluck meal.

Dusty will be gently carried to his resting place by his grandsons, Phillip and Gabriel, brothers, Terry, Rocky, Rusty, Dennis, Randy, brother in-law Ike, and nephew Travis Johnson. 

Honorary Pallbearers are his grandson, Matthew Rodriguez and nephews Joe Seskey III, David Johnson, Greg Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Spike Johnson, Scot Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Justin Johnson, Bill Hailer, Ben Wald, Ro Jaywardhana, Rick Jackson, Paul Cavins and Travis Gray.