Steve, Eileen, Verna Loosli, Tim, and Teresa Mordaunt celebrate Eileen's 101st birthday with her in May. Eileen had nine children in total; two are deceased.
Verne and Eileen Johnson on their wedding day in 1947. They met and married in Minnesota.
From left: Verne and Eileen, and Barbara and Maurice Malone (Eileen's brother).
A painting by Eileen Johnson of a scene in Ireland.
Eileen Johnson surrounded by her nine children at her birthday celebration in 2005. Her children are Pat, Steve, Tim, Paul, Tom, Verna Loosli, Maureen Johnson-King, Sylvia Thompson, and Teresa Mordaunt. Pat and Tom have since passed.
Editor's Note: National Centenarian's Day is Sept. 22. The day honors those who've celebrated 100 birthdays or more. We're publishing profiles of people who have hit this milestone. The Alaska Commission on Aging is working with the Governor's Office, Pioneer Homes and Long Term Care Ombudsman to celebrate Alaska's centenarians. If you know someone who is 100 or older and would like us to profile them, contact editor@seniorvoicealaska.com.
Eileen Johnson, who just turned 101, has long had an artistic bent.
Raised on a dairy farm in Wadena, Minnesota, she headed to Fargo, North Dakoka, to attend beauty school.
"I guess I was born in my folks' home, in the farmhouse," she said on a recent gray afternoon.
After graduation, she bought a beauty shop in Menahga, Minnesota.
One of her clients had a son soon to return home from serving in the Pacific theater in World War II. Would Eileen like to meet him? Sure enough, that client's son became her husband, Verne, and the client became her mother-in law.
They married on July 21, 1947.
Verne converted to Catholicism for Eileen, who was born into a sprawling Irish Catholic family.
The young couple lived its salad days first in Minnesota and then in Southern California before finally settling in Wasilla. They endured financial ups and downs and even an house fire, when her oldest son, Pat, was an infant.
"I had to grab my son and run," she said.
Eileen and Verne had nine children as the years passed. But the artist in Eileen continued to find expression in multiple ways. She sewed many of her children's garments, including mother-of-the-bride and mother-of-the-groom dresses.
She also is regarded as an accomplished baker, a skill she learned as the second oldest of 11 children. She would bake a couple dozen loaves of bread each week for the family. Later, a regular activity with grandchildren was baking cinnamon rolls together. Her rhubarb upside-down cake is also a specialty.
"I always entered something in the state fair," she said.
In the 1980s, Eileen began to paint. She discovered she could enroll in art classes at the Mat-Su College, where she took drawing and painting classes. Over the years, she has been recognized with several blue ribbons at the Alaska State Fair. Her family members consider the hand-made cards and paintings she made among their most cherished possessions.
Her home features some of her paintings, as well, including a landscape made while on a family trip to Ireland in 1996.
Her deep Catholic faith is also key to Eileen's life. She keeps a small bottle of holy water in her home as well as a replica of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper and other mementos of her spirituality. A highlight of her life was a trip to Rome, where she climbed all 551 steps up to Saint Peter's Basilica. Going to mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Sundays is still a priority, and her sons, Tim and Paul, try to make sure she gets there.
These days, Eileen enjoys a Klondike bar and visits from her numerous family members. This year for her birthday, family gathered to celebrate with her. Grandchildren and children played music for her, and she beamed.
