Esther M. Johnson, 89; First to Join When Rotary Agreed to Admit Women

Esther M. Johnson, the first woman admitted to the Rotary International club after it opened its doors to women in 1986, has died. She was 89.

Johnson died of natural causes Sunday at a convalescent home in Santa Monica, according to her daughter, Sharon Johnson. She said her mother fell and broke her hip four years ago and never fully recovered.

For 10 years before she was admitted to Rotary International, a community service organization with chapters around the world, Johnson was the executive secretary of the Santa Monica chapter. She also played piano at the club’s weekly luncheon meetings while it was still an all-male organization.

She was finally invited to become a member in November 1986, the year a state appellate court upheld a controversial action by members of the Duarte chapter of the club, which had admitted three women to the group in 1977. At the time, Rotary International responded by revoking the Duarte club’s charter.

“Our records show that Esther Johnson was admitted immediately after the appellate court decision was made in 1986,” Jack Siegal, a past president of the Santa Monica chapter, said in an interview Wednesday. “She was already working with us as the executive secretary, and that got her through the admission process right away.”

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Rotary International’s integrated status in a 1987 ruling. The decision officially overturned a club policy in place since 1905, the year Rotary International was founded.

Early reactions were mixed. At the reception for the first female member of the club’s Pacific Palisades chapter, one longtime Rotarian compared the occasion to Armistice Day, the official end of World War I.

Some long-standing members, however, threatened to quit the club over the issue. One 77- year-old retired realty agent from Claremont told The Times that he would never have joined 32 years earlier if he had thought Rotary International would ever allow women.

Others who originally opposed an integrated membership changed their minds once it became law.

“They can’t force me out of the club by bringing in a few women,” several of them told the district governor from Encino during meetings to discuss the change.

Johnson remained above the fray. “I was at the club for lunch every day, so it didn’t make much difference if they made me a member or not,” she said in a 1987 interview. “I think everyone’s prepared for it now.”

Born in Brookline, Mass., Johnson relocated with her family to Denver before World War II. After high school, she became a treasurer for the Denver public school system and met her future husband, Oliver, at church. She was playing piano for the choir when he was invited to sing as a guest soloist.

They married in 1936 and moved to Santa Monica in 1944. Esther Johnson started her own business as a bookkeeper and in the mid-1950s a Rotary member whom she knew professionally asked her to fill in as the club’s pianist. She kept the job until she retired from her executive position at the club in 2000.

“My mother was honored to be invited to be a Rotarian, she so admired the work of the club,” Sharon Johnson said. Johnson became a sort of den mother and the keeper of the club’s historic memory, Siegal said this week. He also said that Johnson’s husband was an honorary member until his death.

Along with her daughter, Johnson is survived by her niece and nephew, Lois and Elmer Bailey of Santa Monica.

A funeral service will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church, 1008 11th St., Santa Monica, with a reception to follow at the church.

Memorial donations may be made to the church, or to the Rotary Club of Santa Monica Foundation, Box 586, Santa Monica, CA 90405.