Bonnie J. Johnson

Bonnie J. Johnson (nee Anderson)

Age 83, of Plymouth went home to be with the Lord on January 26, 2019 at N.C. Little Hospice in Edina, MN.  She was diagnosed with Duodenal Invasive Adenocarcinoma on January 6, 2019.  She suffered for many weeks and won the final victory and is with the Lord.  We rejoice though our hearts are breaking.

Bonnie Jean was born December 12, 1935 to parents Helma (Olson) and Alvin Anderson in Fargo, ND. She joined brothers Arnold Leo and Ellis Dean.  Bonnie was four years old when she was playing with matches and her pants caught on fire.  The doctor said he would need to amputate her lower leg, but her dad found a second opinion and she received one of the first skin grafts with skin grafted from her other leg.  When Bonnie was 5 years old, her 13 year old brother died in October 1941 from encephalitis, which he had contracted from a horse fly bite.  Six weeks later on December 7, 1941, her brother Arnold Leo was killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.

She graduated from Sleepy Eye H.S. 1953 and from Hamline University in 1957 with a degree in Elementary Education.  She taught in Racine, WI; Hopkins, MN and Paynesville, MN.

Bonnie married E. Ray Johnson on June 9, 1962.

Bonnie fought Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma off and on for 18 years, starting in the early 1980s. At this time she adopted her life verse Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Either way, I win.   In 2011 she had a non-cancerous brain tumor (meningioma) removed.

Bonnie was a long-time resident of Plymouth in her home on Niagara Lane and for the last five years at Summerwood Senior Apartments.  She enjoyed people, spending time with family and friends, researching genealogy and reading.

Bonnie is survived by her children:  Eric Johnson of FL, Kristi (David) Myllymaki of WA, Staci (Paul) Long and Jen Johnson (Steve Beavers) of MN;  grandchildren: Henry and Greta Long, Becca Myllymaki, Brooke (Tyrone) Kulla, Luke Myllymaki and Brinna (David) Pinkerton: and great-grandchild Kulla due February 2019.  She is preceded in death by husband E. Ray Johnson, parents Helma and Alvin Anderson and brothers Arnold Leo and Ellis Dean Anderson.

Memorials, in lieu of flowers, may be made to N.C. Little Hospice or American Cancer Society