ELAINE IRENE STROM JOHNSON

Elaine was born on February 27, 1911 in LappfjŠrd, Finland to Emil Joseph and Hilma Cecelia Brann Liljestrom. Elaine, her mother and brother Elinar, left their home in Finland arriving in the USA at Ellis Island on Christmas Day 1917. She remembers it as an eventful winter voyage across the North Atlantic, disrupted by World War I military activities. They traveled on to Spokane to be joined by her father who had emigrated earlier and had been working in Idaho. The family then proceeded to Aberdeen, Washington to establish their home.

Elaine attended schools in Aberdeen, graduating from Weatherwax High School in 1929 and completed a business college course. She married Martin Sigfred Johnson (another immigrant from Sweden/ Finland) in Aberdeen in 1930. For the next year they traveled as he worked on a road construction project in Washington State. Shortly after their son was born in Prosser they returned to Aberdeen where she was homemaker, in addition to becoming caregiver for her ailing mother.

Following the death of her mother and as her son grew older, Elaine began her working career in addition to continuing as a homemaker. During the World War II labor shortage, she worked as a sheet metal worker in an airplane sub-assembly plant. Also during World War II, she became a U.S. citizen.

She held secretarial positions with the Aberdeen World, Aberdeen General Hospital, and Grays Harbor Boy Scout Council. In 1951, Elaine and her husband relocated to Astoria, Oregon. In Astoria, Elaine started a career as a federal employee with the U.S. Department of the Navy with a secretarial position at Tongue Point Naval Station. Following the death of her beloved husband in 1963, she transferred to a position with the Navy at Treasure Island, in order to be near her son and family and a special cousin who lived in the San Francisco Bay area. Elaine moved to Monterey, California for a position at the Monterey USN Intelligence School, and later, back to San Francisco Bay area to work in the Federal Building for the Office of Naval Research until retirement in 1973.

In 1976, Elaine returned to live Aberdeen. A cancer operation and extensive radiation treatments in 1984 eventually impaired her ability to live totally independently, resulting in her move in 1998 to a retirement facility in Kennewick, Washington. Elaine's son, Dale and daughter-in-law Jeannine, live in Richland. Granddaughters Robin Rose, Brigid Johnson, and Lisa Davidson all reside in California. She has 10 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.

Elaine has a great love of music. She played the piano, enjoyed singing and loved to dance. She was a member of the Order of the Runeberg, Astoria Elks Club Auxiliary, and Federal Retired Employees. Among her activities during retirement was a trip to Finland to visit family and visits to family and friends in California. She enjoyed driving to the beaches at Westport, Grayland and Ocean Shores on sunny or rainy days. Elaine attended classes at Grays Harbor College and served as a crisis line volunteer. Elaine was young for a very long time and has never lost her wry sense of humor.