Leslie Johnson: Teacher's aide died in a plane crash Monday. SPECIAL

School recalls worker killed

NORTH AUGUSTA - Her mother wonders about Leslie Johnson's last thoughts before that fatal fall.

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Patricia Overstreet won't ever know what her daughter said Monday to her husband, Ed, in the seconds before the Piper Navajo they were flying plowed into Phinizy Swamp near Augusta Regional Airport, killing the couple. She does know what her daughter said in a last phone call less than 24 hours before the final flight, said Mrs. Johnson's father, Henry E. Overstreet.

"The last thing she said to her was, 'Mother, I love you,"' he said Tuesday, choking back tears. "I've always been a little tenderhearted and overprotective."

At North Augusta Elementary School, where Mrs. Johnson worked as a special education instructional assistant, her co-workers wandered in and out. They traded stories on the hilarious antics of the aide who loved everybody.

"When people wanted to laugh, they would come in this room," said Kim Sink, the teacher whom Mrs. Johnson, 43, worked with for a decade.

The school's principal, Angela Burkhalter, said: "I mean, she could always make you smile - always had something funny to say."

Ms. Sink said Mrs. Johnson was one of the best friends she had ever had.

"I just can't put into words how much she meant to me and everybody that knew her," Ms. Sink said. "She had such a generous heart. She would literally give you the shirt off of her back, even if it left her with nothing."

Mrs. Johnson helped Ms. Sink and her other instructional aide, Kelley Kryshtalowych, deal with heartache in their lives. Ms. Sink's father died in May. Mrs. Kryshtalowych's mother has been severely ill.

"This year was rough," Mrs. Kryshtalowych said. "She was the glue. We had fallen apart, and she held the puzzle pieces together. She supported us in ways I will never forget."

To memorialize her, colleagues at North Augusta Elementary had four photographs of Mrs. Johnson framed at the school. Ms. Sink and Mrs. Kryshtalowych took the pictures to the Overstreets' Belvedere home and asked whether they could be displayed during visitation - a token of how valuable their daughter was to the school, the teachers and the rest of the community.

Ms. Sink and Mrs. Kryshtalowych promised her parents that the plaque would adorn the walls of the school "forever."

Her parents promised they would come to see the display in its permanent home.

Looking over the framed photographs, her dad said: "She left her mark."

Visitation for Mr. and Mrs. Johnson will be at 5 p.m. today at Rowland Funeral Home in North Augusta. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. James Lutheran Church in Graniteville.

Reach Sara Bancroft at (803) 279-6895 or sara.bancroft@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Wednesday, June 18, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle