Helen Johnston

Johnston was born in Columbus City, Iowa, the daughter of Rufus Sherman Johnston and Louise Colton Johnston.[1] Her father was active in local and state government.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree from Drake University in 1913, attended medical school at the University of Iowa. She completed her medical degree in 1919, from Cornell University College of Medicine.[3] She was a member of Delta Zeta sorority.[4]

From 1920 to 1959, Johnston maintained a private internal medicine practice in Des Moines, Iowa, specializing in women's health and pediatrics.[1] During the early 1920s she was involved with baby clinics held at Iowa State University under provisions of the Sheppard–Towner Act.[5] Later in the 1920s she was the national health chair of Delta Zeta.[6] She was president of the American Medical Women's Association from 1946 to 1947. She was a councilor to the Medical Women's International Association, attending the group's international conferences in Sweden (1934), the Netherlands (1947),[7] France (1952), England (1958),[8] Germany (1960), and the Philippines (1962).[1][4]

Johnston was Iowa state chair of the National Woman's Party in 1924.[9] She was elected the ninth national president of Altrusa International in 1928[10] and 1929, and stayed involved with the organization for many years after.[11][12][13] She served on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in Services from 1954 to 1957.[1][4][14] She was named Iowa's Medical Woman of the Year in 1956, and Delta Zeta's Woman of the Year in 1957.[1][4][15]

Helen Johnston had spinal surgery in 1962,[16] and left Des Moines in 1964 to live with her friend, Mrs. Arthur Turner, in Sun City, California. She died there in 1969, from cancer, aged 78 years.[1][17] Her home in Des Moines, built in 1938, is still a striking example of modern architecture in that city, now known as the Helen Johnston House.[18][19][20]