Janet Johnson

Janet Mary (Stecker) Johnson, age 88, died on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, at St. Mary's Care Center in Madison. She was born on March 19, 1925, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the only child of the Reverend Bernard Joachim Stecker and Effie Johanna (Prebsensen) Stecker. Jan earned her bachelor's degree in English at Ripon College, where she met Robert Warren "Bud" Johnson of Neenah, Wisconsin, who was then in Army training. The two wed July 7, 1947, at the Church of Our Saviour in Fond du Lac, the Lutheran parish that Jan's father founded and where her mother played the organ. Jan worked for Dairyland Products Company as Bud was finishing college. She gave birth to their first child, Lynne Ann, in 1950, shortly before Bud's graduation from UW-Madison, when they lived on Williamson Street. For much of the 1950s and early 1960s, Jan and Bud lived in Maple Bluff, where Jan was a homemaker and Bud worked for Rayovac. There, Jan bore their second and third children, Scott Richard in 1952 and Susan Lee in 1956. In 1965, the family moved to the Hill Farms neighborhood, where Jan remained until her death. Jan was an active member of Luther Memorial Church in Madison, and she found great joy among her friends in choir, sewing club, bible study, book club, and the neighborhood. She loved to walk and garden and attend symphony. She sorely missed her beloved Bud after his death in 1995, but she recreated her life and filled it with family, friends, and her favorite companions, lively little dogs named Misty Blue, who preceded her in death, and Jamie, whose vocality survives her. She is also survived by Lynne Johnson; Scott Johnson and Marlisa Monroe; Susan Johnson and Camille Guerin-Gonzales; and her cherished granddaughter, Michelle Lynne Ribeiro. Jan is survived as well by Lynne's eleven godchildren and sixteen grand-godchildren and by Susan and Camille's children and grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Ave., on Friday, May 3, 2013, at 3 p.m. The Reverend Brad Pohlman will officiate. Friends may call for visitation at 2 p.m. in the church narthex. A light meal will follow the service in the church Great Room. For questions about parking, please contact the church office. Burial will be at the Oakhill Cemetery in Neenah on Saturday, May 4. Memorials may be made to Luther Memorial Church or to the Humane Society.