A photo of Ella taken at Art Hill, where she would frequently go to visit the Saint Louis Art Museum | Photo courtesy of Sophie Keyser, taken by WashU Senior Daniel Wilk

Ella Johnson, a senior at WashU, passed away on Jan. 14 following a long and difficult struggle with mental health challenges. She was 21 years old.

Ella’s friends described her as a “Renaissance woman.” She was studying psychology and Spanish and hoped to attend graduate school for clinical psychology. She excelled at her classes, but was just as often found drawing, sketching, or writing.

Ella loved listening to music and had a passion for her favorite artists and bands (like Lana Del Rey and Dire Straits) that few others could match. She loved her cat, Sammy. She was a cinephile who loved niche, intellectual, black-and-white films. But, at the same time, she loved late-night Rally’s and Taco Bell orders and dancing with her friends on nights out.

Senior Sophie Keyser, one of Ella’s roommates and close friends, described her as an incredibly thoughtful person.

“Ella had a unique capacity for understanding people and emotions on a really deep level,” Keyser said. “She was compassionate and empathetic and really observant. Truly, so observant. She was a really, really good friend. She just had so much love for the people around her.”

Though she possessed a wide range of talents, Ella was a humble, grounded, and down-to-earth person with a deep sensitivity to those around her. Senior Thea Davidson, another roommate and close friend of hers, said Ella had profound empathy for others.

One year, after a spring break trip to Malibu, Ella stayed at Davidson’s house in Los Angeles for a few additional days.

“I was feeling really tired and worn out, and I felt kind of anxious about hosting her and showing her the full ‘LA experience,’” Davidson said. “I told her that, and without batting an eye, she was like, ‘Oh, I don’t care. I just want to hang out with you, meet your parents, and see you, and see your room. We can literally lay in bed all day.’”

Junior Eli Penn, Ella’s boyfriend, said Ella was one of the most special people he had ever encountered.

“She was one of the kindest, gentlest, most giving people I’ve ever met,” Penn said. “She was one of those people that gave a lot more than she ever took, that constantly told you how much she loved you. You always knew where you stood with Ella because she would tell you.”

Penn also described Ella’s abundant selflessness.

“It was never about herself; it was always about other people. She wanted to make sure that other people were happy,” Penn said.

Ella was always willing to go on a spontaneous trip or adventure and was often the first person to say yes to a crazy or outlandish idea. Her friends said she would agree to things without even necessarily wanting to do them, just because she wanted to spend time with her loved ones.

Isabel Arzeno, who was a roommate and close friend of Ella’s, said that one year, the two of them drove Arzeno’s car back to her home in Connecticut and Ella’s in Boston. Ella wanted to stop at Niagara Falls on the way to the East Coast.

“We ended up crossing the Canadian border accidentally, by foot, and we couldn’t get back into the U.S. because we didn’t even have our IDs,” Arzeno said. “We were just dying laughing in front of the customs officer. That road trip, we spent the entire time just talking and discovering new things. It was so fun.”

Ella was an old soul. While her intellect and capacity for understanding others led her to always have insightful things to say, she only spoke when she felt she had to, according to Davidson.

“She was a wallflower in a really lovely way,” Davidson said. “She contributed only when she felt necessary and almost took in everything that she could before she contributed, because she really wanted to be thoughtful about it.”

Ella had a keen interest in psychology research and specifically focused on how parental behavior impacts adolescent social media usage. Ella was a member of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society, and she worked in both the Lifespan Lab and the Emotion and Mental Health Lab while at WashU.

She was also selected for WashU’s Summer Undergraduate Research Guided Experience to pursue her own research. Alison Tuck, a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology at WashU, was one of Ella’s mentors.

“The work that she did really was that of a graduate student,” Tuck said. “She clearly was just incredibly bright. She was very excited about the research and cared about what she was doing and the difference that it could potentially make.”

Despite her academic excellence and affinity for research, Tuck also said Ella would often help other members of her lab with tedious, difficult work. She would finish her own work early and find ways to support others.

“I think the stereotype is either you’re really ambitious and ready to push everyone beneath you, or you’re super kind and compassionate and gentle,” Tuck said. “She really was both. She was brilliant, she was ambitious, and she was kind, and she was empathetic.”

Ella valued crafted gifts over material items or luxuries. One year, for a Secret Santa gift, Ella made Keyser a charcoal drawing of the two of them. Senior Brooke Farrell, a close friend of Ella’s, said Ella crafted her a message written on a Neil Young CD.

Senior Zoe Ademuyiwa, another close friend of Ella’s, received a handmade Christmas card from Ella this past December.

“She had great style, great music taste. She was a great writer, an amazing artist,” Ademuyiwa said. “She just cared so much about everybody in her life. Even if somebody was in her life and then they weren’t, she would still be worrying about how they were doing.”

A charcoal drawing of Ella and Sophie that Ella made. | Photo courtesy of Sophie Keyser

Ella’s friends said over and over that her style was spectacular. That she loved the color red. That she had a talent for picking out the best antiques and thrifted finds.

But, in spite of her natural stylishness, Ella did not particularly care about aesthetics. Her friends said she had countless cat knickknacks and antiques strewn around her (often messy) room, and even though some people would find them “ugly,” Ella loved anything cat-related regardless.

Ella inspired many people to try to be like her or embody her in different ways. To be a bit more observant, a bit more thoughtful about the individuals around them.

Farrell said that Ella’s way of seeing the world and the people around her is something she will attempt to replicate.

“I feel like, since this happened, she will cross my mind every day,” Farrell said. “I want to be like her. I want to be as kind as her and as pure as her, and I want to sit and listen and see, try to see people, the way she did.”

Ella was, above all, a deeply compassionate person who put others first. Her kindness and way of always looking to uplift the people around her stuck with those who spent time with her.

“I’m going to miss her for the rest of my life,” Penn said. “The things that she gave me, the things that she would tell me, the confidence, the self-esteem I gained just from merely being around her. I’ll take it with me for the rest of my life. All of her friends felt the same way being around Ella. She made you feel great about yourself, and there aren’t too many people on earth like that. That was Ella.”

Johnson is survived by her parents, Mark Johnson and Jane Clayson Johnson; brother William Johnson; her siblings, Kristina Cahill, Mark Johnson Jr., and Kathryn Gulisane; and grandparents, Jane S. Clayson, Karl Clayson, and Kathy Clayson.

According to the Record, WashU is planning to host a celebration of life. The Johnson family requests that tribute gifts be made to the Ella Elizabeth Johnson Fund in support of mental health and well-being at WashU and that the community honors Johnson’s memory by doing something kind for someone else.

The following mental health resources are available for students at WashU: WashU Cares, WashU counseling, Uncle Joe’s, SARAH, the RSVP Center, and BHR, a 24/7 resource hotline at (1-800-811-4760)

Additionally, these national resources are available to WashU students:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988, 988 online chat, National Grad Crisis Care, Crisis text line