{"id":6322,"date":"2018-12-17T15:46:15","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T21:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=6322"},"modified":"2019-01-07T12:17:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T18:17:21","slug":"merlynn-johnson-elkader-iowa-december-17-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2018\/12\/merlynn-johnson-elkader-iowa-december-17-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Merlynn Johnson, Elkader, Iowa, December 17, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Merlynn John Johnson, 69, passed away on Monday, December 17, 2018, at University of Iowa Hospitals from complications after open heart surgery.\u00a0 Merlynn was born on November 23, 1949, in Richmond Center, Wisconsin, to the late Ronald and Wihelmina (Grabanski) Johnson.\u00a0 He grew up in the small town of Mt. Sterling, WI, with two older sisters, Marlene and Bonnie, and a younger sister, Karen, where his father, Ronald owned a cheese factory.\u00a0 He graduated from Gays Mills High School and later received his bachelor\u2019s degree in Political Science from Wisconsin University at Lacrosse.<\/p>\n

He married Connie on September 5, 1980.\u00a0 Their daughter, Tara Ann, was born on September 14, 1981. Shortly after, Merlynn, Connie, her four year old daughter, Kelly and Tara Ann moved to Florida. After several years in Florida they moved back to Lacrosse, Wisconsin.\u00a0 They divorced and he moved to Prairie Du Chien, WI, near his sister Bonnie and Denny\u2019s three children, Kelly, Michelle, and Barron, along with being with Tara, while taking her to many family events.<\/p>\n

Merlynn met the love of his life, Susan (Comer) Karpan in November, 1991.\u00a0 They became a couple within a few months and were together until they married on November 27, 2002, at Peace UCC, Elkader.\u00a0 Susan brought with her three daughters, Nicole, Natalie, and Amber.\u00a0 The family grew, with Susan\u2019s six grandchildren, and Grandpa Mer became a big part of their lives.<\/p>\n

Merlynn retired on January 1, 2013.\u00a0 He enjoyed watching the Green Bay Packers and other sporting events with family and close friends in Elkader and Prairie du Chien.\u00a0 He loved fishing, building and remodeling.\u00a0 He spent many hours turning his yard into Susan\u2019s and his favorite place to relax and enjoy nature and bird-watching.\u00a0 In the past four years, Merlynn and Susan have spent their winters while staying with their dear friend, Dianne Coyne, as well as enjoying time with her children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Merlynn will be remembered for his quick wit, his love of people, his wonderful laugh and being a jokester.\u00a0 He touched the hearts of so many.\u00a0 Merlynn will be greatly missed by his wife, Susan; daughter, Tara Ann and her sister Kelly;\u00a0 sisters, Marlene Maas and Bonnie (Dennis) Fuller; sister-in-law, Sally (Comer) Brown; brother-in-law Bruce Bowles; step-daughters, Nikki (Mark) Jacobs, Natalie (Bryan) Hintz, Amber Becker; six step-grandchildren;\u00a0 Daynan, Haley, Alexis, Chloe, Sam, and Sophia; many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.<\/p>\n

Merlynn was preceded in death by his parents, Ronald and Wilhelmina; sister, Karen (Johnson) Bowles; brother-in-law, Jon Mass; sister-in-law, Nancy (Comer) Vogelsmeier; and mother-in-law, Vera (Cornelison Comer) Mullins.<\/p>\n

A Memorial fund has been established.<\/p>\n

Visitation<\/strong>:\u00a0 3 to 6:00 PM on Friday, December 21, 2018 at Leonard-Grau Funeral Home & Crematory, Elkader.<\/p>\n

Funeral Service<\/strong>: 10:30 AM on Saturday, December 22, 2018, at Peace United Church of Christ. Rev. Jon Haack officiating<\/p>\n

Interment<\/strong>: St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery, Seneca, WI at 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 22, 2018.<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home & Cremation Service is assisting the family. Online condolences may be left with www.graufuneralhomes.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merlynn John Johnson, 69, passed away on Monday, December 17, 2018, at University of Iowa Hospitals from complications after open heart surgery.\u00a0 Merlynn was born on November 23, 1949, in Richmond Center, Wisconsin, to the late Ronald and Wihelmina (Grabanski) Johnson.\u00a0 He grew up in the small town of Mt. Sterling, WI, with two older […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[499],"class_list":["post-6322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6399,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions\/6399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}