Johnson, Katherine (Germann) 1915 - 2021

JOHNSON, GERMANN, UPDEGRAFF, JOHNSON, LALK, SHULTS, MURRAY, WALKER, HEMPEL, SOLLERS, FUNK

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/19/2024 at 21:00:44

Decorah native Katherine Germann Johnson died February 1, 2021 at her home in Austin, Texas.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, James and Sue Updegraff, her daughter, Margaret Updegraff Lalk; grandchildren, Geoffrey Lalk (Sarah), Kathryn Lalk Shults, Anne Updegraff and Sarah Updegraff (Steve Murray); by great grandchildren Alayna and Russell Armentrout, Cade, Jenna and Westen Murray, and Julia Shults; by nieces Jane Walker (David Hempel) and Lynn Walker Sollers, by great niece and nephew Rachel and Matthew Funk, and by cousins.

Kay was born June 25, 1915 to Frank and Bessie Germann, grew up with her sister Margaret in Decorah, and attended Grinnell College before receiving her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Iowa. Graduate work at Washington University in St. Louis was interrupted by marriage to Dr. Ralph Updegraff in 1939. They first lived in Cleveland, Ohio where James was born, moving to Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio during WWII. Kay and Ralph moved back to Ohio where Kay's next decade was spent raising their two children, braiding rugs and refinishing floors, furniture, shutters, and woodwork for their 100-year-old house. Purchase of a television in 1949 allowed Kay to keep up with her true passion: politics, most notably the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.

Kay and Ralph divorced in 1958, and Kay headed home to Iowa, with two teenagers in tow, to finish her master’s degree.

Kay relished her work as a medical and psychiatric social worker, employed at University of Iowa Medical School, the Iowa VA, the University of Nebraska medical school and at Hennepin County Medical Center. It was during this time that Kay re-connected with the love of her life, Herbert Johnson. She and Herb had first met when, as a tall high schooler, she was drafted to play the role of a spear carrier in the Luther College Easter Passion play. They resumed a lengthy courtship, marrying in a Luther College ceremony the day Kay retired in 1980, and spent the next twelve years traveling and entertaining friends.

Kay's passions were many: Herbert, her extended family, socializing with many friends, the Decorah UCC knitting group, cooking, ocean swimming, horses, good clothing, and most of all politics. Kay's life spanned the events of most of the 20th century: WWI and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Balkan wars and the first Gulf war, the New Deal, and the Great Society, the 1918 pandemic, the Great Depression, Kennedy and MLK, Jr. assassinations, the Cuban missile crisis, women's suffrage and the civil rights movement, Watergate, construction and fall of the Berlin wall, space flight, development of the internet, Big Band, folk and Rock and Roll.

Beautiful, outgoing, and outspoken are adjectives many associated with Kay. Throughout her life she was an example of determination, independence and convictions which profoundly influenced her grandchildren. She attributed long life to good doctors and martinis. If you wish to honor Kay's life, have a martini, and support Doctors Without Borders.

Kay's family is grateful for the excellent and compassionate care of Brookdale Hospice and Home Health in Austin. Burial services in Decorah will be scheduled in the spring at Phelps Cemetery through Fjelstul Funeral Home and the Decorah United Church of Christ.

Source: Fjelstul Funeral Home database

Phelps Cemetery
 

Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Jeff Getchell.
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