[Transcribed text of January 7, 1978 Pacific Daily News article]
Guam's Great Lady Buried
By Judy J. Miller Daily News Staff
An estimated 2,500 people flocked to Agana yesterday to pay last respects to renowned civic leader Agueda Johnston.
She was buried at the Naval Cemetery at the bottom of the hill near her Nimitz Hill home.
Earlier in the day, govern-ment and military officials, community leaders, friends and students from the junior high school named for her filed slowly past Johnston's coffin at the Agana Cathedral. At the Legislature, senators eulogized the pioneer of education and civic improvement on Guam.
"Agueda Johnston...was special, not just because she did things, but because those very actions became symbolic of something greater," said Republican Sen. Katherine Aguon at the first-ever state funeral held for a non-elected official.
"She was — first and foremost — symbolic of the persevering Chamorro woman; she was more than just a teacher par excellence, she stood for education itself," Aguon said.
"She also symbolized the Chamorro struggle for adaptive and progressive change in the modern world yet without losing the dignity and aura of her Chamorro roots," Aguon said.
Johnston's flag-draped casket, flanked by a police honor guard, sat in the middle of the Legislature's oak-paneled hall. Relatives, three former governors and former Judge Vicente Reyes, a longtime friend, sat nearby. The flag outside was lowered to half-mast in recognition of the territorial day of mourning declared bv Gov. Ricky Bordallo.
A funeral procession that backed up through miles of hilly roads around Nimitz Hill accompanied Johnston to her grave.
Weeping relatives clutched the American flag that had draped Johnston's casket and then went home in a long black car.
"What she left behind was herself." Emilie Johnston said of her mother-in law, who died after a stroke at age 85.
Johnston is credited with bringing education to Guam after World War II destruction of schools. She was instrumental in establishing the first junior high school and the first high school.
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You can read more about her on Guampedia: http://guampedia.com/agueda-iglesias-johnston/
