Ella Louise Johnson
Ella Louise Johnson, 91, passed away on Monday, September 13, 2021 at about 1 PM in her home at 1414 N. Hibbert, Mesa, Arizona. Her eldest son, Joe, attended her through the night and two of her daughters, Virginia and Suzanne, were able to join her in her final hours. Our mother was a fierce, kind, wickedly intelligent human being, and though she was an only child herself, she was never so happy as when surrounded by the dinner-time chaos of her very large family.
Ella was born in Los Angeles, California on March 21, 1930, daughter of Johann George Gerlach and Ella Louise Gerlach. She graduated from George Washington High School in 1948 and attended two years at a Junior College. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Latin American History at Arizona State University in 1991, and she was perfectly exasperated when ASU transferred all of the junior college credits from her youth, so that she only needed two years to graduate–she would have loved to study four years straight. Ella met her husband of 62 years, Ernest J. Johnson, at an Ingle-Aires Sunday night dance in Los Angeles when she was working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office. In California, they lived in an apartment in Manhattan Beach, where they had three children. From there, they moved to Indiana where Ernie pursued a physics degree and two more children were born. After he finished his PhD at Purdue University in 1963, they moved to Lexington, Massachusetts with their five children. Three more children were born before Ella and Ernie moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1983.
Ella’s father immigrated to the USA from Germany, and he was naturalized as a US Citizen in Los Angeles on February 12, 1932, two years after Ella’s birth. George believed in physical fitness and instilled in Ella a love of sports that she carried through her life and gave to her children. When she joined the parent-versus-kids softball games at Girl Scouts camp, she was a fierce competitor, which made her daughter secretly, and fiercely, proud. Ella was an avid hiker. She loved being outside, and she passed this passion on to her children, as well. She was a regular hiker at Usery Mountain in Mesa, Arizona up into her 80s, where she and her hiking group would come across all sorts of wildlife including rattlesnakes and gila monsters. It was also very important to Ella that all of her children learned how to swim, as she never got this opportunity. Every day during the summer, Ella would walk her children to swim lessons, fostering a love of the water amongst everyone. When lessons became available to her, she took the opportunity to learn how to swim herself and swimming laps became a regular part of her weekly routine.
Ella managed the activities of her children with extraordinary dexterity and care. She first learned to cook at the age of 25, and eventually found herself cooking for between 8 and 10 people every night for years. She managed eight children’s dentist appointments, eye appointments, annual physical check-ups, swimming lessons, parent/teacher conferences, rides from here to there and back. She was always there encouraging her children to stay the course, whether it was the last leg of the hiking trail leading to the summit or returning to school after failing a test or receiving a disheartening work review. Meanwhile, she pickled jars and jars of cucumbers, froze peas, made blackberry, blueberry, and grape jam, and battled continually with the evil washing machine in the basement that was always overflowing when its panty-hose filtered exit pipe would get knocked out of the sink. She baked bread, pies, cookies, and birthday cakes. Her lasagna was legendary. In running our family, Ella ran a small business. And when her son, Michael, became ill at the age of three, she selflessly cared for him until he passed at 21, giving up her dreams for a post-children career. Even then, she continued singing, baking, hiking, and caring for the lives of all her children.
In fostering the ability to think critically and never accept what IS as what must be, Ella mastered the art of the ambiguous response to her children’s many questions: to her second-grade daughter who asked, “when I go to heaven, will I be able to shake George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s hand?” she said, “Oh, I suppose.” To the question, why did you stop teaching religion school classes, she said, “Oh, well, that director wanted me to tell a group of children learning about science that the Red Sea actually did part. I just couldn’t do that.” When one of her kids had a girlfriend or boyfriend, she would covertly ask the others if it was serious, and in her defense would say–”I don’t want any of you guys to think I’m pushing you into marriage!” Quietly, calmly, and without calling much attention to it, she taught her children to think for themselves.
Ella was deeply curious and engaged with the world. Before she was married, she had a “posse” with whom she went on ski trips, hiked in the Redwoods, and once, she took a drive across the country from Los Angeles to Niagara Falls with three friends –one of them, she confided, was following a boy to Chicago, though it turns out he was less than receptive and after some tears, that friend went home. We still have a photo from that trip of our mom in her 20s on a bucking pinto pony prop, one hand on the pommel and the other raised high in glee. Our mom was never without a novel or work of history, and she fostered this love of reading in her children. She loved to sing and play the piano. While living in Lexington, she was a member of the MIT Women’s Chorale, performing in Christmas and Spring concerts every year. For her “heathen” kids, the best part of the concerts were the refreshments! The many international members of the chorale group provided a wide variety of delicious, unique foods. After moving to Mesa, Arizona, Ella joined the ASU Choral Union. As a member of the chorus, she performed in concerts across Europe and Australia. Ernie accompanied Ella on these trips and enjoyed attending the concerts and spending time with the other spouses.
After spending so much of her life caring for others and taking on countless volunteer positions at schools, St Brigid’s Church in Lexington, the Mesa City Library, and NPR annual telethons, Ella’s imagination moved her to return to the world of work that she had left when she got married. After receiving her degree from ASU, she took a job at a newspaper clipping service. Her job was to scan newspaper pages and pick out key words at increasing rates of speed. As soon as she achieved her goal speed, they moved the goalposts, making the job a challenging one. With a perfect mom-like mix of exasperation and joy, she said, “Now I know how it feels to have a boss like all of you –I have to convince this guy any time I want a day off!”
Ella joins her mother, Ella Louise Gerlach, her father George John Gerlach, her late husband, Ernie, and her late son, Michael, who passed on in 1994. She is survived by seven children, Joseph Johnson of San Francisco, California, Mary Johnson of Elsah, Illinois, Therese Johnson of Madison, Wisconsin, Thomas Johnson of Stratham, New Hampshire, Suzanne Johnson of Sterling, Massachusetts, Virginia Belich of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Gale Coşkan-Johnson of St Catharines, Ontario. She leaves her cousin, Frank Gumbinger, her ten grandchildren, Isidro, Antonio, Robyn, Oliver, Nichole, Alex, David, Meghan, Geoffrey, and Zeynep.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on March 21, 2022, (Ella’s birthday) at Noon, at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, 400 S. 4th St., Philipsburg, with Fr. Mike Pleva, celebrant.
The laying of her ashes to rest will be in Immaculate Conception Catholic Cemetery, Osceola Mills.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Rosie’s House: A Music Academy for Children (Support | Rosies House) in Ella’s memory.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Beezer-Heath Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 719 E. Spruce St., Philipsburg. Family and friends may sign the online guestbook and share memories at www.beezerheathfh.com.
