I'm working on a project to write biographies of all my known ancestors (those I know enough about to do so) for my children and grandchildren. Here's the one of my own parents.
Alfred Likins Johnson and Elsie Lorine Anderson
Alfred Likins Johnson was born 16 July 1920 in Westwood, Lassen County, California, the only child of Olin Street and Katharyn Mary (Likins) Johnson. Westwood was a company town, run and mostly owned by the Red River Lumber Company, located in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northeast California. The Johnsons lived briefly in Palermo, near Oroville, California, when Alfred was three or four, but they soon returned to Westwood, where his father bought a fox farm. About that time, Alfred was baptized at the People’s Church, a non-denominational congregation sponsored by the company and affiliated loosely with the Methodist Church.
Alfred went through the 8th grade at Westwood Elementary School. He then enrolled at Westwood High School; but in 1934, his father was elected sheriff of Lassen County, and the family moved to Susanville, the county seat, where Alfred finished his high school education at Lassen Union High School. He had decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into law enforcement, and he enrolled at San Jose State College as a criminology major. He subsequently transferred to the University of Nevada, matriculating there as a sophomore in 1940.
But as for so many other young men at that time, the war intervened. Alfred enlisted in the army 5 February 1942, just weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack. He served in what was known as the 10th Mountain Division. This was a unit that was established specifically for mountain warfare; it attracted men like Alfred who had grown up in the mountains and were proficient skiers. He served first in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, guarding against the threat of a possible Japanese invasion. Later, after additional training in Colorado, the division was sent to the Italian alps. This meant that these men were among the few who served in both the Pacific and European theaters of the war. He saw action in both the Northern Apennines and Po Valley campaigns; he was awarded the bronze star in 1944. He then was stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia, where he attended Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a second lieutenant. But the war was coming to an end, and upon his discharge in January 1946, he returned to Susanville. He didn’t return to university but began to work for his father as a deputy sheriff. He had a second job as well, with the Susanville Police Department.
He became reacquainted with Lorine Anderson, a high school classmate. They had not dated in high school, but now they began to spend time together. Lorine was the daughter of Alfred J. and Hildur (Edenholm) Anderson. She was born in Susanville, California, 5 January 1921, the youngest of five sisters (though the two oldest had both died before she was born). When she was born, her father was an officer of the Moose Lodge in Susanville. The idea was proposed that the Lodge would pick the baby’s name, and in return, the baby would be given a savings bond. Each member of the Lodge wrote a name on a slip of paper, and two names were drawn: “Elsie Lorine.” Her mother was ready to back out, but she finally agreed to the name “as long as I can call her ‘Lorraine.’” So Elsie Lorine Anderson was her legal name, but her parents and sisters always called her “Lorraine.” She became known in Susanville as “the Moose baby” (which certainly didn’t describe her in any way!). She absolutely hated the name “Elsie,” and when she became an adult, she informally changed her name to “Lorine A. Johnson” (A for Anderson), and she introduced herself always as “Lorine” (not “Lorraine”).
Lorine’s social life in high school revolved around the Susanville Methodist Church, where she was active in the Methodist Youth Fellowship, and the Job’s Daughters; she at different times was an officer in both groups. Alfred Johnson had also been involved in Methodist youth activities.
When Lorine graduated from Lassen Union High School, she enrolled in Lassen Junior College and completed two years there. In August 1940, she began nursing training at Samuel Merritt Hospital in Oakland, California. When she graduated in 1943, she received high praise from the school’s officials: She “gives her patients excellent care and they all like her and ask for her. She has that quiet, calm manner that patients like, self-controlled, does not get excited. A conscientious, thorough worker; trustworthy. … She will fill a needed place in this war torn world and will be a credit to our School.” Upon graduation, she entered the Army Nurse Corps and spent most of the war working at an army hospital at Ft. Lewis, Washington. She attained the rank of First Lieutenant (and after their marriage, she enjoyed reminding Alfred that she outranked him!). After the war, she, too, returned to Susanville and began seeing her high school classmate. They were married at the Susanville Methodist Church on 20 June 1947. They honeymooned in Tijuana and Ensenada, Mexico, and Catalina Island.
Soon after their marriage, Alfred applied to serve in the California Highway Patrol (CHP). He scored high on the civil service test, and in February 1948, he resigned from his two jobs as he awaited assignment with the CHP (working in the meantime for Lorine’s brother-in-law, Ben Cunningham, doing construction). In January 1949, he had nine weeks of training in Sacramento before starting with the CHP, after which he was assigned to Quincy, Plumas County. While they were living in Quincy, their first child, Richard, was born—though he was born in Susanville, where Lorine had been working at Riverside Hospital.
In 1950, Alfred was transferred to the Chico office of the CHP, but his time there was interrupted when he was recalled to active duty in the army. This was during the Korean War, but Alfred was sent to Camp Gordon, Georgia, where he was trained as military police officer. Lorine and young Richard had stayed with Lorine’s parents in Susanville during the first months of Alfred’s service, but they eventually joined him at Camp Gordon. In 1951, he was transferred to Camp Roberts, near Salinas, California, and the family lived in Salinas and then Paso Robles for the next year. Alfred was discharged in November 1952, now a first lieutenant (and so no longer outranked by Lorine!), and they moved back to Chico to resume Alfred’s career with the CHP. Lorine got a nursing job at Enloe Hospital.
Two more children, both girls, came along in 1953 and 1955. The older daughter, Victoria, was seriously ill when she was two years old, and that may be what led to Lorine’s quitting work. They also realized that the one-bedroom house on Poplar Street they had purchased was not adequate for their growing family, so in 1955 they bought a home on Filbert Avenue in a new subdivision. After youngest daughter Susan started school, Lorine took a part-time job in the office of Dr. Emery Leivers, a local ear, nose, and throat specialist. She would work there until his death in 1986.
Alfred had many interesting experiences in his years with the CHP. He liked to tell about the time when he pulled over the cowboy movie star Roy Rogers for speeding. “Trigger isn’t going to like this!” Rogers quipped (referring to his famous horse). Interestingly, Alfred’s uncle Bill Likins was a very close friend of Roy Rogers, but Alfred, a consummate professional, didn’t mention that connection when he ticketed Roy.
Those who knew Alfred through his work remembered him as sociable and outgoing, someone who enjoyed telling stories and was often the life of a gathering. At home he could be quieter and more reserved. His years with the Highway Patrol required irregular shifts that often kept him away evenings and weekends, and much of the responsibility for school activities and day-to-day family life fell to Lorine. Nevertheless, he encouraged his children’s interests, even when they differed from his own love of hunting, fishing, and sports. He seldom spoke about his wartime experiences. Only after his death did his children come to appreciate how profoundly the war may have shaped him.
Lorine seemed almost naturally suited to nursing. Caring for others came easily to her, whether as an Army nurse, in Dr. Leivers’ office, or at home. If one of the children became ill, she instinctively transformed the living room couch into a comfortable sickbed, complete with blankets, pillows, soup, crackers, and whatever quiet reassurance was needed. She was never an adventurous cook or an enthusiastic gardener, but she excelled at creating a warm, secure home. Family members remembered her gentle voice, ready smile, willingness to help others, and quiet faithfulness to family and friends.
Alfred retired from the CHP in 1976. The last six years of his career, he had been a special duty officer; this meant that, rather than serving as a patrolman, he did background checks and investigations of applicants for the CHP. He also had earned a credential to teach police science at the junior college level. In retirement, he worked off and on as a courier for the Bank of America and, during the rice harvesting season, he worked for a friend who was a rice farmer. He also enjoyed playing golf.
Alfred’s parents moved to Chico in 1968 because his mother was in failing health; after her death in 1969, Alfred and Lorine remodeled their home so that his father could live with them. He shared their home until his own death in 1984.
Although their personalities differed, Alfred and Lorine complemented one another well. His steady professionalism and sense of duty were balanced by her warmth and instinctive concern for others. Together they created a stable home in which service—to family, community, and country—was simply assumed. Their three children grew up taking those values for granted because they had seen them lived out every day.
On 22 October 1992, Alfred went out for his morning walk but came home feeling very sick; he had suffered a heart attack. An ambulance was called, but he died soon after arriving at the hospital. He was only 72 years old; his doctor attributed the heart attack to the fact that he had been a smoker for much of his adult life. The next year, Lorine’s sister Alfreda was widowed for the second time, and the two of them sold their homes and bought a new home together in Chico. They shared this home for the next few years, until Lorine’s increasing dementia made it necessary for her to move to an assisted living facility in Chico; the home was sold, and Alfreda moved to Montana where her only son had lived for many years. In early 2002, Lorine’s children decided that her continued decline made it necessary for her to move closer to one of them, so she moved to Grass Valley, California, where son Richard lived; but she did not make the transition well, and she died in Grass Valley 16 February 2002. She and Alfred are interred at the Glen Oaks Memorial Park in Chico.
Children:
i. Richard Olin, b. 1 July 1949; m. Lois Joanne Solberg.
ii. Victoria Kathryn, b. 10 June 1953; m. Richard Ira Butterfield.
iii. Susan Amelia, b. 16 March 1955; m. Jerome Landesman.
