Tall trees punctuate the lawn of the South Jefferson Street home of U.S. Senior District Judge Edward Johnstone and his wife, Kay.
A bald cypress in the front. A dawn redwood in the back, and others, deep-rooted and scraping sky along the borders of a lot that slopes gently downward toward the banks of Eddy Creek.
The judge, 86, finds peace among the trees, shrubs and flowers there. Azaleas. Viburnum. Red okra. Cherry tomatoes.
Most all of them were planted by Johnstone hands: the judge, his wife, their children.
Johnstone’s father brought the redwood tree to his son in a gallon container, years ago.
It has since reached a height of well over 100 feet, nourished by the Princeton soils, where the judge has also let his own roots run deep.
Johnstone will lead this year’s Black Patch parade as its grand marshal this Friday, Sept. 5. The parade begins at 5 p.m.
“The story is, what happened to me happened because of the people of this county,” Johnstone said Wednesday. “Good people. When you work for people like that, success is at your hand.”
The judge and his wife found Princeton and made it their home in 1949.
Born in Brazil, the infant Johnstone and his parents returned to the U.S. and settled in Paducah.
His father served as a McCracken County farm agent until 1937, when he accepted a position as an agronomist with the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Johnstone was a member of Lafayette High School’s first graduating class, and he remained in Lexington to continue his education, enrolling at UK in the pre-law program.
His college career would be interrupted, though. World War II was under way, and the future judge would soon be in the fight.
“My brother graduated from UK,” he said. “As soon as he graduated, the Marine Corps nabbed him. Before he’d been out of college very long, he was on a ship going to the South Pacific.”
Johnstone, as a college student, had a deferment, but put it aside after learning of his brother’s combat with Japanese troops on the island of Bougainville.
“When I found out (they) were shooting at my brother, I didn’t know anything I could do but quit school … and go somewhere where I could shoot back,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m going to get in it,’ and I did.”
Johnstone volunteered for the Army and was shipped to the European theater. He saw combat in the Battle of the Bulge, earning a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for his service.
Three Johnstone brothers (Ed in the middle) fought in the war, and all three came home.
“We all got back, including my dog,” he said.
The family’s Doberman Pinscher found herself enlisted in the Army as a stateside sentinel dog and served for three years.
After coming back to the States, Johnstone returned to UK, where he completed law school and married Kay.
“She’s awful important,” he said. The two are now in their 62nd year of marriage.
A new bride. A law degree. And soon, a new hometown.
“When he got out of law school,” said Kay, “he couldn’t afford to open an office in Lexington.”
During a search of legal opportunities elsewhere in the state, Johnstone saw that the city of Marion had only two attorneys — two lawyers who needed competition, he said.
The Johnstones drove to Crittenden County on a Saturday afternoon, and toured Marion, agreeing it had potential.
They had planned to spend the night with Kay’s family in Russellville, and to get there, they came through Princeton.
“We came in on 91,” he said. “At that time, Main Street back then was arched with trees.
“We drove in there and drove past those two churches, the Baptist church and the other church … she said, ‘This is a nice little town.’
They drove around the courthouse square and around the downtown area, taking the community in, meeting their destiny.
“I parked the car and walked over to the bank that was open on Saturday afternoon at the time,” he said.
Johnstone went into the bank and found its president, J.B. Lester, inside.
“I said, ‘I want to ask you, if a fellow had a license to practice law, a wife and child, do you reckon he could make enough money to support them here in Princeton?’”
“He said, ‘If you work, you sure can.’”
In the course of the afternoon, with Lester’s assistance, Johnstone obtained an office downtown and an apartment for his family at the corner of Mitchell and Hopkinsville streets.
“We decided this was where we wanted to live,” said Johnstone. “And I came, and I started practicing law, and I’ve been here ever since.”
The Johnstones bought their South Jefferson Street home in 1952, for $5,700, and have lived there for the past 60 years.
“One wife, one house,” he said. “I still live here, and I expect to live here until they carry me out the door in a box.
“This place has just been wonderful to me. These people in Caldwell County. They’re loyal.”
Being away from the county regularly in his 30-plus years as a federal judge has been the hardest thing to do, he said.
“It separated us 32 years from being a part of the community where we’d like to have been.
“The federal bench took me all over the country. Many, many great cases to try, and many, many good people you come in contact with, but it’s a lonesome job in a way.”
Johnstone was named circuit judge for the state’s newly-created 56th Judicial Circuit, covering Caldwell, Livingston, Lyon and Trigg counties, in 1975.
“The lawyers around here all signed a petition that they wanted me to be their judge,” he said. “I was honored by it.”
Johnstone spent between three and four weeks in judicial school in Nevada and returned home to begin his career on the bench.
In two short years, he would be elevated to the federal judiciary, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.
The road to that appointment began when Johnstone’s secretary and court reporter, Barbara Clift (now DeAngelo), received paperwork from the state bar association suggesting Johnstone apply for the federal job.
“I said ‘We haven’t got time to fool with that, Barbara, that’s politics,’” he said.
“She did anyway. She sent the thing through.”
DeAngelo served as Johnstone’s administrator in the court system during his entire career on the bench. She retired this year.
Johnstone had made a few visits to Washington to encourage senators to appoint a Crittenden County colleague to the federal bench under the administration of President Gerald Ford, a Republican.
“The Republicans were in command,” said Johnstone, “but they had a dispute amongst themselves as to who would be the new federal judge. They decided to put it off until after the election … they let it slip by.”
Carter, a Democrat, won the presidency. The Senate, hoping to avoid another fight over the judicial nomination, appointed a committee of 15 people to choose five candidates for the president’s review.
“It ended up that I was one of the five,” said Johnstone.
With the support of the state bar association and a Henderson attorney who had served as Carter’s campaign manager in Kentucky, Johnstone won the appointment and took the bench in 1977.
“At that time, I would hold court in Paducah, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Louisville,” he said. “I was very busy, but it was fun.”
Kay gave up a local teaching career to accompany the judge. “We kept the road hot,” she said.
After more than three decades on the federal bench, Johnstone’s pace has now slowed considerably.
Hearing difficulties have stopped the judge from presiding over trials, but he continues to do Social Security reviews, reading medical reports and other records for all such cases in the Western District of Kentucky.
He also presides over all naturalization proceedings for new U.S. citizens.
His time now is divided between Princeton and offices in Paducah and Louisville.
Federal judges are appointed and salaried for life, and while Johnstone could have retired more than a decade ago, he continues to serve.
“A day’s work for a day’s pay,” he said. “I still try to give something back to the public.”
That service, he said, has included supporting and befriending some of his younger colleagues.
Johnstone swore in C.A. “Woody” Woodall III as the newest circuit judge in the four-county region in December 2006.
Woodall, he said, grew up two doors up the street from the Johnstones.
“Woody Woodall, in this judicial district is a great judge,” he said.
Johnstone asked Woodall to accompany him in Friday’s parade, and Woodall agreed.
“One of the things that makes me proudes of being the fifth 56th Judicial Circuit judge is that Judge Johnstone was the first,” Woodall said.
“He mentored me 30-something years ago as a young lawyer when I moved to Cadiz. He has always been a model of compassion and common sense, as well as a strong student of the law.
“He’s always been a people judge, and he will still tell anyone who asks, it’s not his courtroom. It’s the citizens’ courtroom.
“He’s a gracious gentleman. That’s endorsed by his allowing me to share a ride with him down Main Street. I think that’s a wonderful tribute,” he said.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell, who took over for Johnstone when the judge entered senior status, also drew accolades, as did Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Lisabeth Hughes Abramson, a Princeton native.
“I cherish having been a mentor to Lisa Hughes Abramson,” he said. “A brilliant, brilliant woman.”
That respect for his colleagues mirrors the respect he has shown for all parties involved in court proceedings during his time on the bench.
Kay recalled a case during Johnstone’s days on the local circuit when a juror asked to be removed from the jury because he had a tobacco crop to cut.
“Ed said, ‘If you serve your time as a juror, I’ll be out to help cut tobacco with you,’” she said.
“I said ‘You’ve got to cut your tobacco, and I’ve got to try this case,’” said Johnstone.
The juror stayed, and the judge was true to his word. “He went out,” said Kay, “but the man had gotten it cut.”
The same principles apply at the federal level, he said.
“It’s mostly just deciding cases and trying to administer the law fairly and impartially for everybody.
“There are no big cases or little cases. Every case is important.”
• “You can tell he’s kind of a man of the people, and we just want to have a chance to recognize him,” said the Princeton Optimist Club’s George Kilgore, organizer of this year’s Black Patch parade.
“He’s just a wealth of knowledge and information that we’re fortunate to have here.”
“I’m honored that the people have been so kind and generous,” said Johnstone.
“We’re comfortable here. Everything we are professionally or with our children, we owe to this community.”
