Lorraine I. Johnson Obituary (1925 - 2008)

Lorraine Irene Johnson, age 82, died at the American Lutheran Home in Menomonie on March 26, 2008. Lorraine was born on October 25, 1925, in Fountain City, Wisconsin (Buffalo County), to Walter J. and Emma (Adank) Senn. She spent her earliest years on a farm in Eagle Valley. She attended her first years of school at a small one-room school called "Fairview." In 1934 the family moved to Fountain City, where they lived until 1941. After a short residency in Piedmont, Missouri, the family returned to Buffalo County, to Cochrane. Lorraine graduated from Cochrane High School in 1943. For a time during World War II, she moved to Chicago in order to work as an IBM keypunch operator for the U.S. Treasury Department. After that, she worked as a bookkeeper at the Herald Lumber Company in Cochrane, and then for several years as an IBM operator at the J.R. Watkins Company in Winona, Minnesota. On December 26, 1949, Lorraine married Don L. Johnson of Madison, Wisconsin, who later became a well-known outdoor writer for the Milwaukee Sentinel and other publications. They had two children, Douglas in 1951 and Lynn in 1952. Lorraine and her family resided in a number of Wisconsin communities during the decades that followed - Madison, Neillsville, Eau Claire, Milwaukee, Dousman, and Menomonie. Lorraine was a homemaker. She was also very interested in current events and in various government policy topics. She was a "kitchen-table activist" who wrote many letters to Members of Congress and other policymakers. She was also a devoted writer of letters to family members and friends. Lorraine was preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Don L. Johnson (January 20, 2006), by her sister Betty, and by her brother Marcel. Lorraine is survived by her children, Douglas (Carolyn) Johnson of Maryland and Lynn (Curt) Carlson of Independence, Wisconsin; by her grandchildren Clare, Paul, Miriam, and Thomas Johnson; by her great-grandson Mark Johnson; by her sister, LaVonne (Jerry) Hovind of Manitou Springs, Colorado; by several nieces, nephews, and cousins; and by many friends. A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 PM Thursday, August 14, 2008 at Olson Funeral Home in Menomonie, with Pastor Paul Pillman officiating. Burial will be at later date in Northern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Spooner, WI, where her cremated remains will be interred with those of Don. The family encourages donations to the Dunn County Humane Society, 302 Brickyard Road, Menomonie, Wisconsin, 54751. To express condolences online, please visit "obituaries" at www.olsonfuneral.com