<!-- FH = Bevis Funeral Home of Tallahassee -->Patricia Larkin Johnson, 78, died peacefully and in caring hands, at Margaret Dozier Hospice House at Big Bend Hospice on Sunday, October 31, 2010.A Seattle native, Pat displayed a gift for music at an early age. She attended the Santa Barbara School of Music on scholarship and then the University of Washington, where she studied the three things she liked most: music, oceanography and psychology.While in Seattle, she commuted to Vancouver, British Columbia, to play the French horn with the Vancouver Symphony; "Because Igor Stravinsky was there conducting." During these years she spent six summers in Aspen, Colorado, playing with the Aspen Festival Orchestra. It was there she developed an interst in photography. Her photographs of musicians appeared in TIME and LIFE magazines.She also came to the attention of a "friend of the arts" who paid her way to New York, where she successfully auditioned for a scholarship to The Julliard School.While at Julliard she toured with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler. Upon graduation, she joined the Washington National Symphony as a French horn player. In 1959, at the age twenty seven, she traveled with the Symphony on a three month State Department tour of South America, visiting a total of 18 countries.Over the course of her career, she played with the Sadler's Wells Ballet on tour in the U.S. and Canada, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal Women's Symphony, the National Capital Woodwind Quintet and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She also picked up "gigs" playing at concerts with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. When she reached a point in her career where she wanted another challenge, she went to work in Washington, D.C. at the Woodward and Lothrop (Woodies) Department Store in the camera department.In short order she became assitant buyer and then buyer of cameras. In 1964 she was offered the opportunity to switch to cosmetics, the largest category in the store under one buyer. In that position she pioneered new lines, dropped old ones, and accurately predicted the coming popularity of men's lines.In conjunction with Estee Lauder, Pat developed the promotional concept of "gift with purchase", a practice still in use today. After 35 years as a retail executive, in 1994 she retired from Woodies and moved to Tallahassee. She is survived by her adopted family; Barbara S. James, Betty James, Fleet James, Betsy James Clements, Carolyn James Fetner, their families; and her special friend, Wilma Clark. The late Dennis James preceded her in death.A memorial service will be held at a later date. Gifts in memory of Pat may be made to Big Bend Hospice, 1723 Mahan Center Blvd., Tallahassee, FL 32308, or to The Augustus Julliard Society, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-6588.BEVIS FUNERAL HOME of Tallahassee (850/385-2193) is handling arrangements.