The following sketch was written by Karen Mauseth to read in RS in 2010 about Mom. I think Kristen helped write this sketch.
Doris Kirkham Johnson was born in Monroe, Utah on October 19, 1923 to Lott and Sarah Wrigley Kirkham. When Doris was five years old, the family moved to Shelley and settled in the Second Ward. At that time there were only two wards in the Shelley Stake. Doris has been in the Second Ward ever since. Her family lived on Sugar Row which was a row of houses on the west side of the road that leads to the Sugar Factory where her father was employed.
One of Doris’ early memories was that of her mother holding Doris’ baby brother and pacing the floor. They had received word of a fatal accident at the factory but didn’t know whose husband and father was killed. Doris’ father and another man were in a rail car under an operating boom. They started talking of what would happen if the boom went out of control and fell. The other man said if that happened, he would fall to the floor and lay flat. Lott said he would jump out of the railcar as fast as he could. The accident did happen. The boom fell, the other man jumped. Lott fell flat and laid still. The other man was killed. The voice of Lott’s father spoke to him and told him to lay down. He obeyed and lived.
Doris was one of two daughters and six sons. She and her sister were close and shared the same sense of humor, laughing together often. Doris remembers how her fun family loved to laugh. When Lott went fishing, Doris like to go along. She liked to gather the worms for his bait, but she didn’t have to put them on the hook.
Another fun activity for the family was to travel to Beaver, Utah, to visit Doris’ sister Adah. People didn’t travel much back then so it was a special treat, especially when they got a new car. Lott was very proud of that car because it could speed up to 50 MPH!
While Doris was at Shelley High School, she met Maurice Johnson who was two years older. One evening Doris, her date, and another couple went to the movie, “The Wizard of Oz”. As Judy Garland was singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, Doris’ date left to buy popcorn and Maurice leaned forward from the seat behind to ask Doris to a dance. From then on, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” has been their song.
Although Maurice started the relationship, Doris was the one who secured it – and got her man. After dating a couple of times, Doris saw Maurice coming out of Mutual with another girl. She started walking with another boy. It achieved the desired results. When Maurice saw her with someone else, he didn’t like that and decided she was the one.
Doris and Maurice were married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 19, 1941 shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed. The Idaho Falls Temple wasn’t built yet. Because Maurice was a farmer, he didn’t go to war until later. He served on an aircraft carrier in San Francisco and Florida for one year and three months, missing the birth of their first daughter, Carolyn. However, because Carolyn was very sick, the Red Cross arranged for Maurice to have leave long enough to come home and give and see his new baby. In spite of the couple’s sacrifice, Doris was grateful he was able to serve their country.
During the war German POW’s were brought in to work on the farms, housed where Tophus Park now stands. Aome worked at the Johnson farm and were treated so well some of them didn’t want to go home.
While Maurice was gone, Doris stayed with her in-laws in an apartment in their basement. The Johnson’s have a funny story about that apartment. After Maruice and Doris were married, they had planned a honeymoon to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Since they would be travelling through Beaver, they took Doris’ mother to visit Adah. The funny thing was that they turned around at Beaver and went home because they were so excited to settle in their cute new apartment which they had spent a lot of time and effort to fix up to live in after they got married. SO the family the family joke is that Doris’ mother went on their honeymoon and they didn’t.
The couple has six children: Carolyn, Maureen, Carl, Phyllis, Dale and Kristen who was born when Doris was forty-four years old. Maurice farmed to make a living and Doris helped. They lived in their basement apartment until the early 1950s when Maurice’s parents retired to a home near the temple and the young couple moved upstairs. Maurice’s father had sent for this home from Montgomery Ward. It came with directions and all the pieces numbered. It has been a faithful sturdy home. Doris stayed there when Maurice passed on, sharing it with her daughter Kristen, husband Jim and four grandchildren. Now Doris’ granddaughter Jerda, and her husband Kirk and their two children have purchased the house and live there with Doris. The home has always been full of love and laughter. Kristen said, “I had the absolute most perfect childhood.”
That statement gives a clue to the kind of mother Doris is. In 1980-81 she was voted area “Mother of the Year”. She went to Boise and was first runner up. A plaque and prizes were given, plus the honor of being the Grand Marshall along with Maurice in Shelley’s Spud Day Parade.
In 1974, Doris beat cancer with radical surgery. The three week hospital stay was difficult since children weren’t allowed visits at that time. Maurice brought Kristen to the hospital so Doris and Kristen could see each other through the window of Doris’ room.
Doris’ callings have been numerous, including Relief Society President, Young Woman’s President at 59 years old under Bishop Wayne Hathaway, Primary President, Stake Relief Society President, temple worker, organist, teacher, and baptism coordinator with her husband. When serving as Stake Relief Society President she challenge all the wards to have 100% visiting teaching. They achieved the goal and Doris has personally achieved 100% on her visiting teaching ever since. In 1986, Doris and Maruice were able to serve a one year mission for the church in McComb, Illinois, near Nauvoo where they had many unique experiences.
Knitting, cross stitch, and crocheting are hobbies of Doris. She has sold 5,000 plus pairs of baby booties to Mormon Handicraft. Recently she found a pattern for an American Flag afghan and crocheted 53 of them. Crocheted drapes from her hand adorned her living room for years
She loves nature. Even during busy farming, her family found time to camp in Wolverine Canyon overnight, rising early to get back to the irrigating. She knows the names of all the flowers she encounter in hiking the mountains. She climbed Table Rock at 76 years old! Her love of nature also was apparent in the beautiful yard and flowers she and Maurice raised for years. She has passed her love of the creation to her children.
Besides six children, she has 62 grandchildren and 46 great grandchildren. She has over ninety descendants living. Her immediate goal is to be here on earth when grandson Trent Nelson returns in July from his mission in Korea. Being such an amazing successful woman, she will hopefully attain that goal.
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