For many years Barbara Johnson led a good and uncomplicated life as a homemaker, mother and volunteer - and then her grandmother was murdered.

The 1983 slaying of Ellen Funderburg, 87,  of Decatur was a terrible blow to Mrs. Johnson and her family, and the ensuing legal process that led to a life sentence for the killer, Eddie Lee Ross, produced its share of pain, too.

Rather than sink into bitterness, Mrs. Johnson resolved to fashion a good and useful result from the ordeal. "I never felt like I wanted revenge," she said in a 1987 Journal Constitution interview.  I just wanted to do something to help the next (crime victim)."

And so she did.

She helped organize the Rockdale County Victim Witness Assistance Program and counseled many people trying to deal with grief, anger, medical bills, disabilities, and so on.  She became an advocate at the Georgia General Assembly in favor of compensation for victims, the three strikes law and a statewide family violence commission.

She instructed district attorneys and police across the state on treating crime victims with more sensitivity. Two former Rockdale district attorneys attest to Mrs. Johnson's effectiveness.

"Barbara was one of the first victim witness coordinators in Georgia.  She did a wonderful job and established a model for programs elsewhere in the state," said Robert Mumford of Conyers. "Her empathy for them was extraordinary." "She helped prosecutors understand the importance of the cases we were trying. that we were representing not only people in general but especially aggrieved people in particular."

"The fact that crime victims alter became volunteers in the program speaks volumes about the effect Barbara had," Mrs. Custer said.

A memorial service for Mrs. Johnson, 59 is at 11 a.m. today at Salem Methodist Church Covington.  She died of cancer Monday at her Conyers residence.  Cremation Society of the South is in charge of arrangements.

When Mrs. Johnson learned she had terminal cancer, she decided that she wanted to fulfill a lifelong desire to tap dance. "Barbara's tenacity was amazing," said her teacher Lisa Hinely of Atlanta.  "She would work and work at a routine until she got it right.  She'd come to class even after having chemo.  She might be low on energy at the start, but by mid class she'd be up and dancing."

Survivors include her husband Stuart Johnson, two daughters, Jo Ellen Kuehnel of Munich, Jennifer O'Kelly of Conyers, a son Mitchell Johnson of Conyers, a brother Richard Turner of Loganville and four grand children.