Laura Johannes

Obituary photo

Laura Johannes
29 Jan 1965 - 06 Aug 2022

Clubs & Associations

Boston Uncommons
Gay Callers Association
Lavender Country and Folk Dancers

GCA Caller School

attended 2003

Obituary

Award-winning Wall Street Journal health journalist Laura Johannes, 57, died of pancreatic cancer on August 6, 2022 at her home in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She is survived by a rag-tag band of brilliant, iconoclastic, fun-loving friends, who were with her at the end.

In her career as a science journalist, Laura specialized in making science and medicine accessible to the lay reader—and especially in separating fact from exaggeration. She led a team of Wall Street Journal reporters who won the George Polk Award for excellence in medical journalism for 1997 coverage of the dangerous fen-phen diet cocktail.

Laura was a long-time organizer in queer communities. One community close to her heart is Boston Gender Free Contra Dance in Jamaica Plain. Laura transformed the series from mostly recorded music to all live bands, and instituted funding for live music through the sponsorship system, which continues today. She was instrumental in building bridges between the wider Boston area dance community and the Jamaica Plain series by personally inviting friends and allies to join us at this dance.

Daughter of two contra dancers, Virgil I. Johannes and Rachelina J. Johannes, who themselves met dancing in the early 1960s at Metropolitan Duane United Methodist Church in Manhattan, Laura began contra dancing as a child, and became a caller and teacher in 1998. Her parents’ meeting was memorialized in a waltz composed in 1986 by Larry Unger, “It Happened One Night on the Staircase at Metropolitan Duane.”

Laura enjoyed modern contra dances, but particularly loved the traditional contras and squares. When teaching a mixed group, Laura’s passion was choosing dances that were simple enough that new folks could dance with joy, without worrying too much about getting it right. She often wrote her own dances, including “Starring the Balance.” She also enjoyed writing dances collaboratively with Chris Ricciotti. Her love of dancing also included modern western club square dancing, round dancing, international folk dancing, and English and Scottish country dancing.

Laura was a dedicated student of Iyengar yoga, and is deeply grateful to her teachers for their passion, their guidance and their deep caring.

She loved food, particularly local farm food, and took great joy in cooking for others. Her grandmother’s spaghetti and meatballs are legendary, and the sauce is just about as good as it gets. If ever another sauce was judged better, we’ve either forgotten about that or we’ve scheduled a rematch for another life. Her house was dubbed "the B&B" because there were frequently guests staying over, and she took great pleasure in hosting individual friends as well as larger gatherings.

Laura's family of close friends often benefitted from her compassion and generosity. During the first winter of the COVID pandemic, she took multiple 30-mile round trips on her bike to care for an injured friend. She often put her expertise gained through medical journalism to great use helping her nearest and dearest to navigate the health care system.

Above all, Laura loved spending time outdoors, alone and with friends: kayaking the Sudbury River, hiking the Chickatawbut trail in the Blue Hills, bicycling up stupendous mountains.

For the past eight years, pre-pandemic, she spent four months a year in the French Alps, living her dream to climb them, and then careening down the hairpin turns. In the last few years she discovered the Berkshires and ended up climbing Mount Greylock instead!

In the last weeks of her life, Laura co-authored an article with her doctor, Gregory P. Westcott, on her case study, with the goal of raising awareness about early detection of pancreatic cancer. The article, titled “A Case of Pancreatic Cancer Mistaken for Type 2 Diabetes,” is currently under review at the journal, Clinical Diabetes.

Laura also became an advocate for Massachusetts Death with Dignity, which has been trying for years to pass a law–such as we have in 11 states including Maine and Oregon–that allows physicians to provide medical aid in dying.

Since Laura thinks funerals are a drag, there won't be one. Please celebrate her life in your own way. If you would like to honor Laura’s memory, please share stories of her with others, or donate to a cause that she cared about. Here are some suggestions, or if you feel so inspired, Laura requests that you choose a charity that you think will do good in today's world.^[1]

Legacy

Laura's Zigzag
By Rick Mohr; May, 2001
Contra, Duple Improper
Level: Intermediate

Dedicated to Laura Johannes, caller and dance organizer from Jamaica Plain MA. Laura crafted the sequence in A2 for her dance "Autumn Breeze", expanding on the zigzag idea in Rockin' Robin, and I was full-circle inspired to write this dance.^[2]