Maurene Anna (Smith) JOHNSON

JOHNSON, SMITH, HARRIS, LINDSEY, SULLIVAN, SHELEY, KEHOE, MACPHERSON, ROHWER, LAMONT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/4/2014 at 20:21:57

December 20, 1923 ---- June 29, 2014

Maurene A. Johnson, of Urbandale, formerly of Belmond, passed away Sunday June 29, 2014 at Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. Funeral services for Maurene A. Johnson will be held at 11:00 A.M. Saturday July 5, 2014 at the United Methodist Church in Belmond. Pastor Cindy Morrison will officiate. Burial will take place in the Belmond Cemetery. Visitation for Maurene A. Johnson will be held from 9:00 until service time at the church on Saturday. The Dugger Funeral Home, 111 Luicks Lane South in Belmond is in charge of arrangements.

Maurene Anna (Smith) Johnson, the daughter of Clarence and Vera (Harris) Smith was born December 20, 1923, on a farm two miles west and three miles north of Paullina, Iowa. Her childhood years were spent near Paullina where she attended a country school and graduated from Paullina High School. Upon graduation she attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa where she earned a degree in elementary education. After college, Maurene taught first grade in Larrabee, Iowa. While teaching, she met Ralph Lavern Johnson and that acquaintance gradually led to marriage on June 2, 1948.

They lived on a farm near Larrabee for ten years during which they had two sons, Jay and Eugene. They also farmed for a few years near both Calumet and Aurelia, Iowa before moving to Ground Mound and DeWitt, Iowa, and then to Chillicothe, Missouri. In Chillicothe, Maurene focused on raising three children including a daughter, Julie Sue, who was born with severe disabilities. Ralph and Maurene moved again, this time to Sycamore, Illinois. After placing their daughter at Bethphage, a Lutheran institution providing care of severely disabled children, Maurene took a job with Anaconda Wire to help the family make ends meet. Ralph and Maurene settled down in Belmond, Iowa where they lived for over 40 years. Maurene worked at Central Soya where she knew the corn and soybean markets very well. Maurene was involved with the Belmond Progress Club, PEO, and was active as a member of the Belmond United Methodist Church. Maurene enjoyed playing bridge and entertaining friends and family in their home. She also was an avid quilter and made a special quilt for each of her children and grandchildren. She kept daily diaries for sixty-some years and was a prolific source of weather, historical and family information.

Health limitations required Maurene to move to the Des Moines area to be closer to her doctors and two sons for the last several years. She enjoyed keeping in touch with her siblings and relatives, especially her twin sister, via phone or email on a regular basis. She spent the last two years at a skilled-nursing facility in Grimes, Iowa after falling and breaking a hip, and in the same year, breaking a leg. Her determination allowed her to walk with the aid of a walker in time to join her family in celebrating her 90th birthday.

Maurene passed away suddenly on June 29, 2014. She is survived by her son, Jay (Marilyn) Johnson of Urbandale, Iowa; Eugene (Jane) Johnson transitioning to Temple, Texas from Le Mars, Iowa; grandchildren Eric (Jennifer) Johnson of Des Moines; Andrew (Amy) Johnson of Johnston, Iowa; Jessica (James) Lindsey of Urbandale; Jonathan (Angela) Johnson of Huntington, West Virginia; Rebecca Johnson of Des Moines; and five great-grandchildren, Ella and Lily Johnson; Jesse, Maximus, and Anna Miette Lindsey. Also surviving are sisters Lucille Sullivan of Omaha, Nebraska, Erma Sheley of Littleton, New Hampshire and Ione Kehoe of Magnolia, Texas. She was preceded in death by her husband Ralph Johnson, daughter, Julie Sue, her parents; brothers Clarence Smith, Jr. and Russell Smith, and sisters Ruth MacPherson, Ellen Rohwer, and her twin sister Arlene Lamont. DUGGER FUNERAL HOMES - BELMOND, IOWA

http://www.duggerfunerals.com/ArchivedServices2ndQTR2014.html