Elizabeth Luella "Betty" Johnson

Class of 1943

1943 Graduation Edition
Perry Daily Journal
Betty Lou Gordon

– was born in Perry 18 years ago. She is the daughter of Earl Gordon, 107 Birch street.

Betty took all her schoolwork in the Perry schools. She is a member of the Red Hot pep club and the Catholic girls club. She was a drill leader in Red Hots this year and is a part secretary of the Catholic organization.

Betty plans to be a telephone operator after she graduates.

Elizabeth Luella “Betty” (Gordon) Johnson

April 14, 1925 — June 15, 2021

Elizabeth “Betty” Luella (Gordon) Johnson was born April 14, 1925, to Earl & Marguerite E. (Neuerburg) Gordon. She died June 15, 2021, at the age of 96. She was born in Perry, Oklahoma, where she grew up.

At the end of WWII, she met and married Blake E. Johnson on Christmas Eve, 1945. They were married 63 years. They lived in Perry, then Phoenix for a short time, then Stillwater, before establishing their home in Edmond, where Blake worked and retired from Tinker Field AFB. She worked as a “pioneer” telephone operator, then business representative, until she retired from Southwestern Bell in l975 after 30 years.

They then set up their retirement/vacation home on a mountaintop in Alpine, Arkansas, where she loved to fish & hunt. Upon the death of her husband, she moved to Inola, OK, in 2009. She became active in the Inola Senior Center, where she loved to play bingo and bunco with all her dear friends.

Elizabeth was preceded in death by her parents; brothers Robert Gordon and Harry Gordon; husband; and sons Blake E. Johnson, Jr., and Cpl. James E. Johnson. Elizabeth is a Gold Star Mother.

She is survived by her sister, Ilene Wilde, of Yukon; daughters Delia Patterson of Edmond and Claudia Plett of Inola; grandsons Chett Payne, Michael Payne, and Brent Patterson; granddaughter Shawna Patterson; step-grandson James Patrick Plett; great-grandchildren Blake Payne, Austin Payne, Devon Payne, Kenneth Payne, Sharon Payne, Megan Sites, Gwen Patterson, and Whitney Patterson; and nephews Vernon Wilde, Wayne Wilde, and Mickey Gordon.

Memorial donations may be made to the Crone’s & Colitis Research Foundation.