JOHNSON, Darrel L.

JOHNSON, NELSON, NOCK, GILLESPIE, SPIKER, ONNEN, HARTLIEP, BEUCHLE, SCHMELING

Posted By: Lynette Edsall (email)
Date: 9/12/2006 at 15:02:57

Darrel L. Johnson

CHEROKEE, Iowa -- Darrel L. Johnson, 72, of Cherokee died Friday, Aug. 12, 2005, at his home following a lengthy illness.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Cherokee, with the Rev. Gene Sitzmann officiating. Burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Cherokee. Visitation will be noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday, with the family present 6:30 to 8 p.m., with a Scripture service at 7 p.m., at Greenwood Funeral Home in Cherokee. Online condolences may be sent to www.greenwoodfuneral.com .

Darrel was born March 4, 1933, in Cylinder, Iowa, to Delbert A. and Minnie M. (Nelson) Johnson. He attended schools in Rolfe, Iowa. Following his schooling, he worked as a gas station attendant in Rolfe until he joined the U.S. Army to serve in the Korean War in 1950. Following his military service, he returned to the Midwest and moved to Cherokee to work at Cherokee Mental Health Institute.

On Nov. 29, 1953, he married Mildred Nock in Emmetsburg, Iowa. After living in Cherokee for several years, they moved to Spirit Lake, Iowa, where Darrel worked for Berkley and Company until 1964, when he returned to Cherokee to work for Christensen Bros. Construction. In 1965 he began employment with Wilson Foods Inc., where he worked for many years, retiring in 1996. In 1999 he went to work for Rohlin Construction in blacktopping before retiring due to his health in May 2005.

Darrel enjoyed being with his family, hunting, fishing, camping and telling stories. He was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars and Local 179 of the U.F.C.W.

Survivors include his wife, Mildred; sons, Darrel Johnson and his wife, Lucinda of Cleghorn, Iowa, and Francis Johnson and his wife, Patricia of Tecumseh, Kan.; a daughter, Priscella Gillespie of Cherokee; sisters, Virginia Spiker of Cylinder, Iowa, Eileen Onnen and her husband, Gene of Aiken, Minn., and Jolene Hartliep and her husband, Phil of Roxton, Texas; a sister-in-law, Lois Johnson of Cleghorn; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents; a daughter, Kathleen in 1980; brothers, Delbert, Raymond and Ronald; and sisters, Doris Beuchle and Joanne Schmeling.