Denis Hale Johnson

Denis Hale Johnson

A memorial service for Denis Hale Johnson of Good Grief, who died of liver cancer on May 24, 2017, will be held Friday, October 27 at 6 p.m. at Bonners Books in Bonners Ferry.

The son of a State Department liaison, Johnson was born July 1, 1949 in Munich, Germany, to Alfred Nair Johnson and Vera Louise Childress. He came to northern Idaho in 1989, where he made a home and together with Cindy raised a family. Here he made many friends over the years.

The prize-winning fiction writer, poet and playwright was a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop. He won the National Book Award in 2007 for his Vietnam War novel “Tree of Smoke” and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for “Tree of Smoke” and, in 2012, for his novella “Train Dreams” which was set in North Idaho. He was member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He is survived by his loving wife, Cindy, brother Randall Johnson, sons Morgan Johnson and Daniel Alan Burke, daughter Lana Aileen Burke, and grandchildren Charlie Johnson and Harper Lee Johnson.