Medford Johnston, 83, held his wife Loraine’s hand and shielded her from the rain as the couple sauntered up to the High Museum of Art from their Midtown home across the street on a freezing, wet day in January. The couple was visiting the museum to view their own collection of art being installed on white walls inside — a collection they had amassed with zeal and passion over 50-plus years of marriage and had not once seen displayed together in its entirety.
Seeing their carefully sought artworks numbering roughly 85 pieces was a milestone. It has been almost six decades since the couple got married in their mid 20s and began collecting. It has been almost eight decades since Loraine first crushed on the cute boy Med (as she lovingly calls him) when she was just 5 years old on the playground of their elementary school in Decatur, where they both grew up. It has been 28 years since Medford retired from a three-decade career as an art professor at Georgia State University.
