Route 66 advocate and historian Carl Johnson dies

[December 07, 2012]  Carl Johnson, a longtime Route 66 historian and advocate, died Wednesday in Springfield.

Johnson's career included several years as a surveyor, but in later years he became a Route 66 historian. That particular hobby took him all along the famous road. He worked for the Route 66 Pulse and Route 66 Federation magazines and was a member of the Missouri Route 66 Association.

Johnson also made a major contribution to the official mapping of Route 66 in Illinois for the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, under the leadership Patty Kuhn, the original director of the organization.

He was featured recently in an article in the Illinois Times magazine.

"Carl knew an incredible amount about Route 66 in Illinois and beyond. He provided very helpful information and data for projects in our county and our state, and that is how I got to know him," said Geoff Ladd, director of the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County and president of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. "We became close friends, and I am incredibly saddened by this news."

Johnson's funeral will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at Kirlin-Egan & Butler Funeral Home, 900 S. Sixth St., Springfield, with Judy Woerner officiating. The family will receive friends from noon until the time of the ceremony.

Burial will be at 2:30 p.m. Monday at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.

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See obituary on the funeral home website:
http://www.butlerfuneralhomes.com/obituary/
Carl-L.-Johnson/Hillside-IL/1140154

[Text from file received from Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County]