Alice Benson Johnston

Alice Benson Johnston, 96, of Tijeras, NM, died on July 1, 2025.

She was born in Norwich, New York in 1929 to Rev. Norman McPherson and Florence Fairbanks McPherson. “Our first-born baby, Alice, ushered in the Great Depression,” her parents quipped. Alice grew up helping her mother make and distribute sandwiches to unemployed neighbors. She helped raise her two younger brothers, David and Bruce. Although her parents were from New York City, they chose to send Alice to the local public schools. Later, she studied at Wheaton Academy and Wheaton College, IL while living with her aunt, Helen Fairbanks Eve.

On September 8, 1948, Alice married Donald Ebenezer Benson, a Wheaton classmate, who shared Alice’s upstate New York origins. The Wheaton College Revival of 1950, which resulted in one-third of the graduating class becoming foreign missionaries, had a transformative impact upon Alice and her husband. They became missionaries to the Philippines from 1957 to 1972 with the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society.

In 1972, they moved to Albuquerque, NM to minister at Faith Baptist Church with Alice’s father, Rev. MacPherson. Rev. Don and Alice Benson went on to plant several churches in the Albuquerque area, beginning with Agape Baptist Church. Alice worked tirelessly as a Christian educator, church school principal and a manager at the High Teens thrift shop.

Five years after Don Benson’s death in March 2005, Alice married Donald Anthony Johnston in 2010, and together they managed the prison ministry, Titus House. In 1950, Alice gave birth to her daughter, Constance Louise Benson (spouse Brian D’Agostino) while a student at Wheaton College. Alice and Don expanded their family and adopted Janet Kathleen Benson in 1956, James (Jim) Elliot Benson (spouse Kerry) in 1961, and Kelly Joe Benson (spouse Brook) in 1969. In turn, Jim and Kerry Benson gave birth to three grandchildren, Andrea Jo Reed, Marisa Kathleen and Morgan Kyle. Andrea Jo and her husband, Lamar Reed, gave birth to one great-grandchild, Aaliyah Jo Reed, in 2023.

Alice is survived by her husband, Don Johnston, her children and their spouses, grandchildren, her great-grandchild, and her beloved mountain dog, Goldie. She is also survived by her sisters-in-law, Nancy and Wanda MacPherson, and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Don Benson, and in 2018, by her brothers, David and Bruce MacPherson.

When she became a missionary, Alice chose a Bible verse which remained her life theme: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16 ESV)

A Memorial Service is scheduled for family and friends at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, August 9, 2025 at Foothills Fellowship, 12504 Candelaria Rd., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112. For more information, please call Don Johnston at (505) 315-7940.