Virginia Lois Johnson

November 20, 1921 - November 7, 2013

Virginia Lois Johnson slipped away on November 7, 2013, at Valley Health Care Center just 13 days shy of her 92nd birthday.

Born to Neal Iring and Charlotte (Boeckel) Griggs, Virginia Griggs came into this wold on November 20, 1921, in Lake City, Iowa, the second oldest of what would eventually be four girls, a brother having died in infancy. When she was still a young child, Gin, as everyone came to know her, came to Montana with her parents and her sisters, where her father, a painter, settled in Forsyth, looking for work. Gin would grow up in that town and graduate from high school there in 1940.

In 1941, she married George Johnson, after meeting him while chaperoning her younger sister Alice on a date. They would settle in George’s hometown of Hysham, where George started out working as a farm laborer during WWII, and then after the war joined with his own father and his brother, Klemens, in a carpentry business. During their over fifty years of marriage, Gin would help George by keeping books for the business and raising their five children, taking on house-cleaning jobs on the side to earn money, every bit of which she socked away so that she and George and the kids could travel around the Northwest, to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to visit her son Don on leave from the Navy, down to Tennessee to be at her grandson Russell’s wedding, and to Las Vegas to visit her son Darwin and family, those last trips when she was well up into her eighties.

Tragedy struck Gin and George’s life in 1968, when their third-oldest son, Steve, was killed in a car accident. Gin would again experience a loss in 1997, when George passed away suddenly, at which point she left the town where she had spent most of her life and went to Billings, living with her grandson, Eric and spending time with the families of two of her sons, Don and Tim. In 2006, she moved in first with Tim and Ellen and then with Don and Patti, spending the next five years there until 2012, when she moved into Aspen View and finally Valley Health Care Center.

Gin loved country-western music, almost always having the radio going in the background. She enjoyed puzzles and playing cards, with others and alone, whiling away many hours playing solitaire. She enjoyed crafts, like sewing (making her own children’s clothing, including shirts and pajamas), crocheting, and needlework, her finished projects adorning many walls and end tables. She was particularly proud that she made Christmas stocking for many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She also enjoyed cooking and baking, making her son Don a German chocolate cake for every birthday and designating herself as the chief roll-maker for each holiday gathering. Her grandchildren would get a rise out of her by suggesting her rolls were homemade… by Albertson’s.

Her favorite times though were spent with her family. She would spend time with her daughter Kathy in Greybull canning and at holidays decorating sugar cookies. Up until the last few months of her life, she never missed a family gathering, making sure she was present for every birthday. She enjoyed playing games with her children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, though her grandchildren kidded her again, that there was only one rule to any game, that Grandma Gin got to make the rules.

Gin’s small stature belied a feisty and unique personality, and its absence will be deeply felt by many, family and friends alike.

Gin is preceded in death by her parents, her husband George, and one son, Steve. She is survived by four children - Darwin (Pat) Johnson, Don (Patti) Johnson, Tim (Ellen) Johnson, and Kathy (Larry) Mayland - 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren - Russell Johnson (son Sean), Darren (Sondra) Johnson, Shane (Colette) Johnson (children Justin, Cambria, Daniel, and Shaeley), Aaron (Becky) Johnson (daughters Mikkayla and Amanda), Eric (Lillia) Johnson, Loren (Brett) Johnson (daughter Quinn), Brandon (Tracy) Johnson (children Nathan and Katelyn), Aimee (Kurtis) Cihak (children Tennille and Michael), Garrett Johnson (children Aidan, Ashlyn, and Camden), Afton Evans, and Sharla Evans. Also, one well favored grand-dog Windsor. Print this post