Centenarian looks back on 'exciting' life

SANDPOINT — So much has changed since Lillian Johnson was born 100 years ago this week in a small Minnesota town.

From trains to space travel to computers, there isn’t much that hasn’t changed in that time and to be a part of such a century has been exciting, said Johnson, who celebrated her 100th birthday on Jan. 20.

“I live in a wonderful time,” Johnson said. “This century that I’ve lived, it’s really, really a remarkable time in the world. I think that I’ve been blessed to live in a wonderful time with so many great happenings and so many events and that I was part of them.”

Johnson was just a toddler when her parents moved from Lake Park, Minn., to North Plains, Ore., where she lived until she was 7.

The young family then moved to Tacoma where her father worked in the shipyards during World War I.

A close family, it is those bonds which hold the most memories for Johnson — a bull chasing her mother when they lived on the farm in North Plains, sitting with her older brother after school  as he taught her everything he had learned, music and conversations with her family.

“I had a nice family, we loved each other and we never fought,” Johnson said.

However, the family did suffer its share of tragedy as well. Johnson lost her beloved older brother when he was about 9 years old due to spinal meningitis.

While she shared a special bond with her father, Johnson remembers the one time she talked back to him and was punished. It took a girlfriend’s admonishment that made Johnson realize she had been to blame.

“I realized when I was a teenager that my dad thought the world of me and he was so concerned about everything, about my friends and what I did and everything,” she added. “It was wonderful to have someone look after you and care about you and what happened to you.

“I was definitely a daddy’s girl.”

Johnson had just started high school when a neighbor told her mother that girls in high school only got into trouble. Her mother insisted she drop out, which she did. Instead, she sewed rags together for her mother to make into rugs which she would sell.

The following year, their pastor arranged for a scholarship to business school for Johnson. She credits the class for her success in her jobs and as a homemaker.

While working at an office in the Tacoma area, Johnson recalls all the girls in the office running outside to watch Lindbergh fly overhead as he made his way across the country following his history-making trip across the Atlantic.

“I could see him in his airplane as he flew overhead,” she added

Johnson remembers meeting her husband for the first time. She recalls hearing some boys behind her speaking Swedish and asked if any of them would go talk to her mother, who had immigrated from Sweden as a girl and missed talking in her native language.

One agreed and kept after her to go out, finally asking if she wanted to go to a Swedish dance. She accepted and the boy introduced her to a friend, saying he’d wanted them to meet — it would prove to be love at first sight.

Johnson went home and told her mother that she had meet the man she wanted to marry.

“I told her I’d follow him to Timbuktu if I had to,” she chuckled.

It wouldn’t be long before they were engaged but it would be four years before the couple married. Times were tight and they wanted to be on their feet financially before they married.

When they learned she couldn’t have children, they adopted their daughter, Emmy.

Looking back at all of the changes and inventions that have changed the world so much, Johnson cited the moon landing as among the most exciting. She remembers listening to it on the radio and seeing later broadcasts on television in the small town in Oregon, which was one of the first pilot communities for television.

She remembers her fourth-grade teacher predicting plane and space travel as well as the ability to see and talk to people halfway across the world.

“He told us we were part of a special generation and would see so many wonderful things,” she added.

A quiet celebration was held on her birthday with just family members. Locally, Johnson’s grandsons Erik Kreiger and Craig Kreiger live in Sandpoint and granddaughter Krista Kreiger lives in Naples. Grandson Rory and granddaughter Regan live in Portland, Ore. Her daughter, Emmy Whitman, also lives in Oregon.

If she had words of advice to share, Johnson said it would be to be active, always learn and to grow in your faith.

“Always be curious, always be learning and always be obedient to God,” she added.