Johnson, Roberta (Vermillion) 1918-2004

JOHNSON, VERMILLION, CAFFERTY, HOTGER

Posted By: Barbara Hug (email)
Date: 3/15/2005 at 08:11:49

Newton Daily News, Thursday, October 7, 2004

Roberta "Bert" Johnson, 86, of Newton died Monday, Oct. 5, 2004, at Careage of Newton.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 10:30 a.m. at Pence-Reese Funeral Home in Newton with the Rev. Vernon Fasse, interim pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and the Rev. Merle Smith, chaplain of Skiff Medical Center, officiating. Burial will be at Newton Memorial Park Cemetery in Newton.

Friends may call today at the funeral home, where the family will be present from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Memorials will be accepted in her name to Hospice of Jasper County or Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

The daughter of William Lewis and Alma (Cafferty) Vermillion, she was born May 9, 1918, in Marengo. She attended Newton Senior High School. On Sept. 18, 1937, she married Roy F. Hotger. On March 5, 1954, she married Earl Lee Johnson in the Little Brown Church in Nashua. She assisted her husband Earl at Johnson Aviation. She attended Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and was a member of Women's Ninety-Nines, a pilot organization.

Mrs. Johnson enjoyed reading, flying and her family. She held a commercial pilot's certificate with single- and multi-engine rating. She was a long-time resident of Jasper County.

Survivors include her husband; a son and daughter-in-law, Ronald and Judi Hotger of Laurel; a daughter, Connie Keig of Omaha, Neb.; five grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and three brothers, Bill Vermillion of Rock Creek, Jim Vermillion of Newton and Dr. Richard Vermillion of Boone.

She was preceded in death by her parents, first husband, two sisters and a son-in-law.