Johnson, Helen Maxine McGlade

Helen Maxine McGlade Johnson, a lifelong resident of the Hopkinton area, died Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012, at her home.

She was born Sept. 7, 1915, on the family century farm approximately two miles east of Hopkinton. Helen was the youngest of three daughters born to Mary Margaret Hale and Maxwell Hugh McClurkin McGlade. She graduated from Hopkinton schools in 1933 and Lenox College in 1935. She subsequently attended Iowa State Teachers College, now the University of Northern Iowa.

She began her 25-year teaching career in Delaware County at the age of 18. She taught in a rural one room school north of Manchester, Iowa for two years, then four years each in Dundee and Winthrop. After marriage, she taught one year in a rural school, followed by Hopkinton and Maquoketa Valley school districts. Her career duties included being an elementary through high schoolteacher, principal, girl's basketball coach, and music teacher. She was teaching junior high when she retired in 1961.

She married Walter Vego Johnson of Manchesterduring a short naval leave. They were married July 6, 1945, at the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Hopkinton. They engaged in farming on the family farm until 1954, when Walter's disability forced them to leave the farm and move to Hopkinton. After retirement from teaching, she was fully occupied caring for her husband until his death in 1977.

Survivors include one son, Walter Hugh Johnson of Des Moines; “like family friends,” the Lynn and Phyllis Chesnut family of Hopkinton; a brother-in-law, Raymond Stevenson of Ann Arbor, Mich.; one nephew, Paul Stevenson; four nieces, Linda Stevenson Brown, Linda Spaight Savage, Diane Spaight Gienapp and Roseanne Spaight Elick; and her many friends.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Walter; two sisters, Beth Finley and Ruth Stevenson; and a sister-in-law, Mildred Spaight.

Helen appreciated flowers during her life. In lieu of flowers now, memorials may be made to the Hopkinton, Iowa, Fire Department..

Visitation will be held on Friday from 5 until 7 p.m. at Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello. A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:30 Saturday morning, Sept. 22, at Hopkinton Community Church, with interment at Hopkinton Cemetery.

Thoughts, memories and condolences may be left at www.goettschonline.com.

For the caring and assistance in the last several years, Helen asked that Phyllis Chesnut, Louaine Karkow and Colleen Andersen of Above and Beyond, Susan Roling, and her physician, Katie Book, be publicly thanked.

Published Sept. 20, 2012 in The Gazette