Larry Edward Johnson

Larry Edward Johnson was born on June 30th, 1949, at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas to mother Constance Joyce Johnson and father Edward Carl Johnson. He graduated from Douglass High School in 1967, graduated from ElDorado Junior College in 1969. Survived by life partner Terry L Runyan, sister Joyce L Bridges and brother-in-law Johnie R Bridges and step sister Cindy Hofmeier.

Larry began life, a boy on a wheat farm (just east of Douglass) in south central Kansas — and (as his sister Joyce tells it) from a very early age, he delighted in taking things apart and putting them back together again. “It started with Lincoln Logs, then an Erector Set, then working on tricycles and bicycles and building his first stereo from a Heathkit. Cars are another story all together…

As an adolescent Larry worked the farm along side his father, a man who wanted Larry to follow in his footsteps as he’d done with his own, but other interests and dreams were pulling Larry in other directions. Nevertheless, the work ethic and focus that farming instilled, were attributes that would serve Larry well in a life that took him far from the wheat fields of Kansas and all around the world.

Ever fascinated with electronics and all things mechanical (on the one hand) and, music on the other, his career path emerged. When he wasn’t building or rebuilding things, he learned to play both accordion and drums, the latter of which led to his becoming a drummer in a cover band called “The 13th Hour” that he formed with some high school buddies. That was also the time when Larry started introducing himself to others as “LJ” (a monicker that most knew him by for the rest of his adult life.)He built and engineered at a number of recording studios through the years, but sandwiched in-between studio gigs, he worked for Johnny Cash for some 17 years, mostly as his Front of House “sound-man”(and very occasionally as the drummer) for the band. In all he did some 1700 shows with John and company and traveled round the globe numerous times in the process.

Without a doubt, the most notable highlight of Larry’s life, was the 21 year relationship he shared with the love of his life, artist, avid cyclist and fellow cat lover, Terry L. Runyan. In that relationship, he became just plain Larry again.He was an athlete without the ego, an engineer without the advanced degrees; honest to a fault. A kind and thoughtful man, who no matter where he was, or who he was with, held onto his humor and was always himself. A peerless and consummate professional, who, in his wonderfully unique and more often than not quiet way, made the world a better place.

Private Disposition