Deb Johnston: competitive, compassionate, loved kids and Kankakee

KANKAKEE — Deb Johnston’s competitiveness was front and center in most areas of her life — from coaching countless Kankakee athletes to running for school board — but perhaps one of the most impressive places it showed up was on the green of a golf course.

Johnston, retired longtime physical education teacher and coach who became a pillar in Kankakee girls sports, as well as a member of the Kankakee School Board for about six years, died Saturday, Nov. 16. She was 71.

A celebration of life for Johnston, widely known as Coach J, will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 in the gymnasium at Kankakee High School, 1200 W. Jeffery St.

Remembered as one of the area’s best women golfers, Johnston’s accolades for the sport included qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open in 1978.

“She was a heck of a golfer, and she could hit the ball,” recalled Lisa Ferry, former Kankakee High School athletic director.

Johnston’s powerful drive was not reserved only for golf, however.

She was endlessly passionate for all things Kankakee.

“When I think of Deb, I just think of Kankakee,” Ferry said. “She was a diehard Kankakee person. She loved what she did and was just an overall good person. Gave 100% with everything she did.”

Graduating from Kankakee’s former Eastridge High School in 1971, Johnston began her career there as a PE teacher and coach in 1978, when she started the girls golf team.

A modest program, Johnston would go out into the hallways to recruit students who had never picked up a golf club before to give the sport a try.

Johnston coached a variety of high school sports, with most of her career dedicated to basketball.

Later in her career, she helped build up the district’s softball program, coaching at both the junior high and high school levels.

“She jumped into softball big time and worked very hard at it,” Ferry said.

Johnston was Kays head varsity softball coach from 2004 to 2017; she led the Kays softball team to a 20-9 record in the 2016-17 season and retired prior to the start of the 2017-18 season. She returned as an interim coach for the junior high in 2022, filling in while the full-time coach was on maternity leave.

CARED DEEPLY

Johnston was known to push her teams to be the best they could be.

“All of her kids knew that she cared about them deeply,” Ferry said. “They would get upset, because she was hard on them and would get on them about not trying or not working hard, but in the end, they always knew that she cared.”

Harold Terrell, another prominent Kankakee coach, also saw compassion from Johnston whenever she was working with kids, in whatever sport they happened to be playing.

“All she wanted was for things to be done the right way,” Terrell said.

In 2019, Johnston was elected to her first four-year term on the Kankakee School Board. She was re-elected for another four-year term in 2022.

Kankakee School Board President Chris Bohlen campaigned alongside Johnston while they were both running for re-election. The two had similar platforms and became close friends while serving on the board.

They talked every other day, mostly about school district matters.

“Deb was Kankakee School District through and through and through,” Bohlen said.

Johnston was an outspoken board member and frequently advocated for issues on behalf of teachers.

HUGE LOSS TO No. 111

At times sarcastic, Johnston was typically straight-to-the-point with her words, unafraid to call anyone out when needed.

Even when board members disagreed, Johnston “was always willing to work through it.”

“Her death is a huge loss to the board,” Bohlen said. “She had so many contacts with staff, she would bring information to the board that nobody else had heard, which was very valuable.”

In the 2019 election, Bohlen earned a few hundred more votes than Johnston. Although they both won seats on the board, the vote tabulations triggered Johnston’s competitive side.

“She was a classic PE teacher in the very best sense of that word,” Bohlen said.

The outcome then flipped in the next election, albeit by a hair, with Johnston earning 10 more votes than Bohlen in 2022. She didn’t let him forget it.

“She was competitive, but she never lost sense of what the job really was,” he said. “She loved winning, but that wasn’t her only concern.”

DAILY JOURNAL STAFFER

Johnston also was night desk supervisor for the Daily Journal from around 1986 to 1995.

Teaching at Kankakee High School during the day, Johnston would then work the Journal’s night desk, writing down the results local coaches would call in with and entering them into the computer system for publication the next day.

Mike Frey, former Daily Journal managing editor, recalls a time he randomly started singing “Here comes Super Deb,” to the tune of “Here Comes Santa Claus.”

A coworker improvised the next line.

“Right down Chief Kay Lane.”

Finishing the song, Frey said, “Belongs in the Kays Hall of Fame.”

Calmly, Johnston replied, “I’m already in there.”

She was, in fact, in the high school’s Hall of Fame for her golf prowess at that time.

But to Frey, what was even more memorable was how much Johnston seemed to care about the kids she worked with.

“Deb didn’t have her own children, so I think in a lot of ways, the people she coached, the people she touched, she kind of had that feel for them, a kind of mother hen feel,” Frey said. “I always admired her for that.”

A ‘LARGE’ HEART

In an email shared to the district’s Facebook page, Kankakee Superintendent Teresa Lance described Johnston as being “small in stature,” but with “a heart as large as anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Ms. Deb had a sense of humor that only those close to her would appreciate, including me,” Lance said. “She often referred to me as feisty yet she was by far the [feisty] one.”

Lance also expressed gratitude for getting to know a side of Johnston that others may not have seen; for example, she learned of Johnston’s love for her pet parrot, PJ, who was often heard on the other end of phone calls.

“She loved that parrot because it would sometimes mimic the sounds of her late mother and for that, she would never depart from PJ,” Lance said.

Johnston was an avid White Sox fan, but maybe a bit more surprisingly, she also loved Broadway musicals.

“Let us keep her memories alive in all of us,” Lance said. “Be an advocate for all things right, learn to appreciate Broadway shows and musicals, head out to a White Sox game next season, wear blue and maroon often, and most of all, never stop fighting for our community.”

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