Gordon Johnson

Gordon Johnson was born April 21, 1913, in Baltic, Connecticut, to Martha Jane Jones Johnson and Samuel Henry Johnson. He received his high school education at Windham High School in Willimantic, Connecticut, graduating in 1929, and continued education from Norwich Commercial College and George Washington University.



His military service was served during World War II from 1941-1945 in the Second Infantry Division, 37th field Artillery Battery, 605 Quartermaster (Graves Registration). He served in the United States, Northern Ireland, and France –and was involved in the Battle of the Bulge while in Bastogne.



As a young man, Gordon worked in a grocery store, was an office boy, worked for Western Union, worked for a bank for $40 a month, and for the Farm Credit Administration. He had earlier been trained in Washington, D.C., to sell some of the very first Government War Bonds and was very proud of his success at this venture. His eventual vocation was as an Examiner for the Federal Credit Union-which took him too many locations in the U.S. including New Haven, Connecticut.



There, at a rooming house where he was staying, he met his future wife-Natalie Burn-a school psychologist from Nebraska. They were married in Lincoln, Nebraska, on September 3, 1949. Gordon was a "Connecticut Yankee" in a strange land, but he handled it well, and was forever welcomed by the Burn family and Natalie's friends.



They started their married life in Denver, Colorado, and from there to Boston, back to New Haven, where they had met, Cincinnati, Ohio, New York and finally to Kansas City-or Olathe, Kansas, to be more specific.



Following his retirement from the Federal Credit Union, Gordon kept busy as the Executive Director of Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Kansas City. Then, he helped out at the Johnson County Community College Book Store as their accountant and took advantage of several classes offered at the college. Of course, he was a major player (although he called himself the "silent partner") in the Fabric Farm that he and Natalie ran for years in the basement of their beautiful resident farm outside Olathe.



When they retired "Again," they moved into a condo in Olathe, and then to their home in the Aberdeen facility of Olathe.



The love of his life-Natalie- was taken from him as the result of a terrible traffic accident in May of 2005 and she died on July 3, 2005.



He was also preceded in death by his parents, an older sister, Sylvia, and her daughter, Anne.



Gordon is survived by one niece, Christine (Sanders) Smith, her husband, Jack, daughter Melinda and son, Adrian.