Helen Darlene Steele Johnston

Helen Darlene Steele Johnston, 84, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, wife of Leonard Lyle Johnston for 65 years, died Monday, September 9, 2024, at home while in hospice care. Her funeral service was held Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 2:00 PM in the J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., Mount Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Road. Interment followed the service at Stuhr Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens.

Darlene was born July 4, 1940 in Columbia City, Indiana, daughter of the late John Joe Steele and the late Mabel Ida Clingerman Steele. She graduated from Columbia City High School in 1958 and the Keypunch Training School in Omaha, Nebraska later that year. On March 21, 1959 she married Leonard Lyle Johnston of Columbia City, and their first home was in Bensenville, Illinois. Subsequent homes were in Rochester, Michigan, Cincinnati, Ohio, Syracuse, Indiana and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 

Surviving relatives include her husband, Lyle; three daughters, Charity Johnston of Mount Pleasant, Angela Murphy of Summerville, and Mischelle Gragg of Manvel, Texas; and one son, Nicholas Johnston of Awendaw; eight grandchildren; two great grandchildren; and several cousins. She is preceded in death by sisters, Colleen King, Dorothy Love, Evelyn Lane, and a brother John Webster Steele [killed in WWII], a step brother, Clarence Winebrenner, and step sisters Alice Timperly and Agnes Sholtz. 

Memorials may be made to International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, PO Box 97339, Washington, DC 20077-7472.

A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com.