Jean Lindahl

Jean Louise Lindahl

1950 - 2024

“When a loving song bird flies away from our domain, its song remains forever with us.”

Under the brilliance of a Santa Fe blue sky illuminating the nearby snow-capped mountains, God’s ubiquitous radiance enveloping all, the transcendent delicate flower Jean Lindahl translated to another level of existence on February 16th. She was her husband Laurance Johnston’s best friend and his spiritual soul mate. He will miss her immensely but knows that her soul’s beauty will light up a new, pain-free path.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her brother Doug Crispin and sister Bonnie Crispin. The oldest of three children, Jean was born in Ohio. Her mother Muriel Lindahl and father Wilson Crispin were both from the Boston area.  In 1960, the family moved from Ohio to Southern California where she attended nearby Whittier College and later the University of California, Berkley. 

Most of her adult life, she was a spiritual seeker, most notably over the last 40 years in the ECKANKAR tradition, which emphasizes the eternal nature of soul and how one doesn’t die but its soul translates to a non-physical state of existence.

Jean became an accomplished singer, especially in operatic, sacred, and classical music, winning a scholarship to the Macphail Center for Music in Minneapolis. Her powerful soprano voice stood in sharp contrast to her diminutive stature. Like many musicians, she had difficulty pursuing her musical career due to the need to make a living. Nevertheless, in in her early sixties, she sang in several operas at Opera Southwest, holding the ground with singers half her age.

To support herself, Jean became a skin-care aesthetician, establishing her own business and was invariably loved by all of her clients, basking in her “joie de vivre.” 

In 2002, she met husband Laurance Johnston at the Unity Spiritual Center in Boulder, Colorado. When he first saw her, she was a guest singer, and, although not understanding a word, he teared up as she sang the Puccini aria “Vissi d’arte” (I lived for art). On that occasion, as well as others, her voice channeled the heavenly divine. They got married in 2007 at the historical Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe where they ended up living for the past six years, greatly enjoying the city’s cultural richness and surrounding beauty.

Jean’s life can be summed up author and artist Terri St Cloud’s quote:

And if, when it is all over, I’m asked what I did with my life, I want to be able to say “I offered love.” 

She translated in her dream house bedroom with her brother Doug holding one hand and her husband Laurance holding the other.

A celebration of Life Memorial Service is scheduled for April 15th 1 pm at the Kiva Chapel in the Rivera Family Memorial Gardens, Santa Fe.