Background
Johnston was born in Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
Johnston was born in Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
She wrote for 84 films between 1915 and 1948. She had intended to go to college, but was sufficiently proficient in writing scenarios for films following graduating from high school that she ended up taking just a single course in writing plays at Harvard in 1918. When Vitagraph Studios gave her an assignment to write a scenario for a James Oliver Curwood novel God"s Country and the Woman, she completed the scenario for the William Duncan and Nell Shipman 1916 film within 24 hours.
Johnston died in San Diego, California in 1978.