Charlotte Johnson, 91, of Sheridan, WY passed June 15, 2014 after a bad fall.
She was born July 1, 1922 in Alton, Illinois, the daughter of the late Fred and Lelia (Bauer) Spier.
She grew up in the Detroit area, where in her teen years, she especially enjoyed playing badminton and dancing, and summers in Empire on the Northern Lower Peninsula. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, and then joined the Navy as a WAVE, serving as a physical therapist during WWII. While stationed in Philadelphia, she met Navy Lt. Herb Johnson, who convinced Charlotte he was a good bet, and they recently celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. She made homes for Herb and their growing family in Minnesota, Boulder CO, Manchester CT, and Laramie WY, before settling in to their "house with character" in Boulder where Herb taught at the University of Colorado (CU).
Charlotte was a "people person" and loved a good conversation and meeting new people. She was very active all her adult life in volunteer work for her church and Christian Missions. For many years, she was the Director of Volunteers at Boulder Memorial Hospital. But her passion was learning about and experiencing the different peoples and cultures of the world. The Johnson family always had foreign students visiting their house and sharing their stories and extremely spicy food. Charlotte was the head of the Host Family program at CU for many years, which linked each foreign student with a local family to celebrate holidays, help with transition to life in the U.S., and alleviate homesickness. In later years, Charlotte traveled to Indonesia several times, at the invitation of former students. She also went to Lebanon, Korea, China, and Romania on mission trips.
After their move to Sheridan WY in 1999 and learning box elder bug management, Herb and Charlotte quickly became involved in activities in the Dayton Community Church, and also volunteered every Friday for many years at the VA Mountain View Living Center. Charlotte was an inveterate reader, and many people are now enjoying the library of books she amassed over her lifetime.
The family gives special thanks to the staff at Emeritus at Sugarland, and then at the Mountain View Living Center at the VA, who have given both Herb and Charlotte spectacularly good and loving care.
Charlotte is survived by her husband, Herb; and her children Peter (Sue), Gretchen, Eric (Toni), and Kurt (Rose), three granddaughters, and one great grandson.
The family requests remembrances be sent to Focus on the Family www.focusonthefamily.com or Family Life Today www.familylife.com.
Memorial service will be 11:00am on Sunday, June 22nd from Dayton Community Church, Dayton, WY with Pastor Dennis Goodin officiating.