Obituary: Helen B. Johnson

A memorial service for Helen B. Johnson, 90, a McMinnville, Ore. resident for the past 20 years, will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Chapel of Macy & Son Funeral Directors in McMinnville with the Rev. Randy Steele officiating.

Mrs. Johnson died April 7, 2002 at Alterra Wynwood, McMinnville. She was born April 13, 1911, in Three Rivers, Mich.

She was raised and schooled in Battlecreek, Mich.

She married Leland Johnson Nov. 8, 1933, in Shanghai, China.

She and her husband were missionaries in China from 1933-39. In 1939, they went to the Philippines as missionaries and were Japanese prisoners of war with their three children from 1941-45. After World War II, they lived in Los Angeles and Indio, Calif. before moving to Los Gatos in 1953.

Mrs. Johnson was a nurse at the Los Gatos Community Hospital.

She moved to Dayton in 1967. In 1976, she received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal from the U.S. Army for her years as a prisoner of war.

She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in McMinnville, the Dayton Nevada Bells and she was a 4-H volunteer in Dayton. She loved sewing, gardening and entertaining.

She was preceded in death by her husband in 1967.

Among her survivors are her son Leland of Fair Oaks, Calif.; daughters Constance Dresbach of Sonora, Calif., Margaret Erickson of Tubac, Ariz., Nona Hickenlooper of Sheridan, Ore. and Sally Johnson-Putica of Aptos, Calif.; 16 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Macy & Son Funeral Directors is in charge of arrangements.