‘A gentleman and gentle man’: Services held for Montana journalist

Phil Drake

Services were held Saturday for a man who for nearly 50 years reported tirelessly about state government and Montana politics and now has become the story himself.

Journalist Charles S. “Chuck” Johnson died at his Helena home on March 4. He was 74.

Nearly 250 people filled the sanctuary and a few other rooms for a requiem mass for Johnson at St. Peter’s Episcopal Cathedral in Helena. The church bells tolled 74 times, once for each year of Johnson’s life.

“He was a gentleman and a gentle man,” his friend Chuck Butler said during the remembrances portion of the two-hour service.

Chuck Butler holds up a reporter’s notebook while giving a remembrance during the funeral ceremony for Charles S. “Chuck” Johnson at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Helena on Saturday.

THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record

Much like his stories, those in attendance cut across the political spectrum and included Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s wife, Susan; former Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus; former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot; former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and his Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney.

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