H. Alvin Johnson
Click to Enlarge Photo
Click to Enlarge Photo
October 1st, 1928 - January 16th, 2019
From: Myrtle, MO
Visitation: 1pm-2pm Monday, January 21, 2019
Clary Funeral Home - Alton, MO
Funeral: 2pm Monday, January 21, 2019
Clary Funeral Home - Alton, MO
Burial: Hickory Grove Cemetery - Alton, MO
H. Alvin Johnson, son of the late Alva Alvin (Bill) and Pearl (VanWinkle) Johnson was born October 1st, 1928. He departed this life on January 16th, 2019 at his home near Myrtle, MO. Alvin was 90 years old.

Alvin was born and raised on a farm along the banks of the Hurricane Creek in the Irish Wilderness of Oregon County. As a young boy he often stayed with his grandmother Hattie (Sharp) Johnson. He spoke of winding her clock, maintaining her oil lamps, and doing chores that she was no longer able to do for herself. Alvin attended Ross School through 8th grade. He graduated from Alton High School in 1945. When he first started high school, Alvin rode his horse, Prince, to the Greer Mill to meet the bus each day. Later, his dad bought a car for that purpose. Alvin enlisted in the Navy in 1949 and served on the Escort Carrier the USS Palau as a radar technician until October of 1952.

On May 9th, 1953 Alvin married Geraldine (Jerry) Boren at West Plains, MO. They were blessed with three sons: Glen, David, and Phil. Alvin and Jerry purchased their farm near Myrtle, MO in 1956 where they maintained a dairy for 41 years. They transitioned the farm into a beef operation after discontinuing the dairy. Alvin grew a large garden every year, and he enjoyed sharing the bounty with his friends and family. He was especially close to his grandchildren, who all think that he could hang the moon. Alvin was always willing to take the time to show a grandchild one of nature’s wonders, or how a piece of machinery worked. He will be remembered by his family as a loving and patient man that was most content when at home on his farm.

Surviving family members include his wife Jerry; brothers Wayne (Bonnie) Johnson, and Larry (Thelma) Johnson; Sister-in-laws, Barbara Johnson, and Linda (Truman) Combs; Sons, Glen (Karen) Johnson, David (Lisa) Johnson, and Phil (Trisa) Johnson; Grandchildren, Kim Anderson, Leigh (Michael) Barnhart, Kevin (Aleta) Johnson, Chris (Lucky) Johnson, Kyle (Barbara) Johnson, and Amber Johnson; Great Grandchildren, Elizabeth Anderson, Amelia Johnson, Daphne and Meredith Barnhart, Evelyn Johnson, Jonah Barnhart, and Clay Johnson; One step Great Grandchild, Olivia Ham. He is also
survived by a host of nieces and nephews.

Alvin was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Don and Bob Johnson, brother-in-law Murrel Gene (Peggy) Boren, and niece Linda Diann Johnson.

Services will be 2:00 pm Monday, January 21, 2019 at the Clary Funeral Home, Alton, MO with Bro. Charles Trantham officiating. Visitation will be 1:00 pm until service time. Internment will be at Hickory Grove Cemetery, Alton, MO.

Memorial contributions may be made to Riverways Hospice.

And on the 8th day God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker!”. So, God made a farmer!

God said I need somebody to get up before dawn and milk cows and work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board. So, God made a farmer!

I need somebody with strong arms. Strong enough to rustle a calf, yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry and have to wait for lunch until his wife is done feeding and visiting with the ladies and telling them to be sure to come back real soon…and mean it. So, God made a farmer!

God said “I need somebody that can shape an ax handle, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And…who, at planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty hour week by Tuesday noon. Then, pain’n from “tractor back”, put in another seventy two hours. So, God made a farmer!

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop on mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place. So, God made a farmer!

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees, heave bails and yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink combed pullets…and who will stop his mower for an hour to mend the broken leg of a meadow lark. So, God made a farmer!

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight…and not cut corners. Somebody to seed and weed, feed and breed…and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk. Somebody to replenish the self feeder and then finish a hard days work with a five mile drive to church. Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who’d laugh and then sigh…and then respond with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life “doing what dad does”. So, God made a farmer!

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