Viola Johnson

Viola Johnson, 103, died of natural causes April 20, 2020 at Chosen Valley Care Center where she had been living.  She was born December 12, 1916 in Fillmore County, rural Fountain.  After graduating from Chatfield High School and the Minneapolis Business College she was employed at the First National Bank in Spring Valley, a job she held for 30 years until she retired in December of 1981.  She later worked part time at the Spring Valley Historical Society Museum.  She was a lifetime member of Root Prairie Lutheran Church and a charter member of the Community Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home Auxiliary in Spring Valley.  She moved to Spring Valley in February of 1951 and lived there until July 2011 when she moved to Chatfield.

Miss Johnson was preceded in death by her parents Peter and Minnie (Foss) Johnson, as well as by her siblings  Beatrice (LeRoy) Mickelson, Evelyn (Alver) Spelhaug, Agnes (Tillman) Olson, Ruth (Stanley) Hall, Orvis Johnson, and Gordon Johnson.  She is survived by two sisters-in-law, Shirley Johnson and Edna Johnson, as well as many nephews and nieces.

Miss Johnson enjoyed traveling and taking pictures of her journeys.  Her interest in history and her devotion to family spurred a decades long correspondence with a branch of family who stayed in Norway as ours came to America. Her letters resulted in several visits both here and abroad and has reconnected our family tree.  In these trying times it is interesting to note that she was born just before the 1918 Flu pandemic, lived through the polio epidemic, and now ends her life during another pandemic.

Immediate family will hold a graveside service for Miss Johnson Friday, April 24, 2020, at Root Prairie Lutheran Church in rural Fountain with Reverend Mark Dokken officiating.  Burial will be in the church cemetery.