| Opal Johnson | |
 Johnson celebrating her 110th birthday in 2019 | |
| Unvalidated |
Opal Johnson (née Houg; 21 December 1909 – 5 November 2020) was an American supercentenarian whose age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).
Biography[]
Early Life and Teaching Career[]
Johnson was born on 21 December 1909 in Ringsted, Iowa. She was the eldest of seven children. In 1917, her family moved to Pine River, Minnesota, where they lived on a farmstead.
In 1928, at the age of 18, Johnson began teaching in the one-room Whitefish School in Pine River, Minnesota. She taught eight grades, and had to deal with students who had illnesses such as typhoid fever and scarlet fever. She worked there for two years before leaving in 1930, going on to work in a school in nearby Mildred.
Johnson went on to earn a two-year elementary diploma from Moorhead State Teachers' College, and then took a supervisory teaching position at a school in Averill, Minnesota. While in Averill, Johnson wrote that she developed a new way of teaching students with learning disabilities, where she used topics familiar to the students, such as agriculture or trucking, to help them learn. She also taught in Moorhead, Minnesota and again in Pine River.
Later Life and Family[]
Johnson resigned from teaching to marry Arvid Johnson in 1942. The couple had two children, Alan and Judy. Arvid and his brother, Ernie, started Johnson Bros. Lumber Company in Pine River which they owned until retirement. After her husband's death in 1993, Johnson lived in apartments before moving into an assisted living facility in Pine River, Minnesota in 2010. since she was around 100.
In her later years, Johnson suffered from dementia and was hard of hearing. In February 2017, at the age of 107, she was reunited with one of her former students, Irene Olson (then aged 96), when Olson visited her living facility. Johnson died on 5 November 2020 at the age of 110 years, 320 days. Coincidentally, her death occurred one day after Irene Olson died aged 100.
References[]
- One-room schoolhouse student, teacher reunite - One is 96, the other 107 Pine and Lakes Echo Journal, 23 March 2017
- Johnson turns 110, is Good Samaritan system's oldest resident Pine and Lakes Echo Journal, 26 December 2019
- Opal Johnson Obituary Kline Funeral Home
- Irene L. Olson Obituary Star Tribune, 15 November 2020