Inge Elly Schepler Eiriksson Johnson
May 13, 1920 – Aug. 31, 2009
Inge Elly Johnson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland on May 13, 1920 to Halldor and Elly Schepler Eiriksson. She grew up skiing, horseback riding and adventuring with her family, with whom she was very close.
Inge moved to Urbana, Ill., in fall 1942 to attend the University of Illinois. She came by convoy from Iceland to New York due to World War II. Normally, she would have been educated in Europe but her father felt she would be safer in the United States.
Inge traveled to Ballard to spend the 1945 Christmas holidays with Jakobina Johnson’s family, close family friends. John Leo Johnson had been discharged from the Army Air Corp in November 1945 and had made it back to Ballard and stopped by Jakobina’s for his third Christmas dinner that night (having grown up with her sons) and met a beautiful young woman from Iceland. They fell in love and were engaged in a week.
Inge went back to Urbana and, with six months left to graduate, packed up her things and went back to John. They were married March 1, 1946 and were married for more than 60 years. As Mom said when Dad passed, “He was a good man and a good man is hard to find. We had many good years together.” They loved and respected each other always.
John and Inge started Fortune Productions on Ballard Avenue May 1, 1959 and worked side by side until retiring in 1994, enjoying the community and friendships on Ballard Avenue.
They built their home at 8018 31st Ave. NW in Ballard in 1956 and enjoyed 50 years there raising their family. John and Inge helped start the Icelandic Club of Greater Seattle in 1964. They were very involved in the Icelandic community and received an honor from the Icelandic Club Jan. 25, 2007.
Inge spent many hours volunteering at the Nordic Heritage Museum, something she enjoyed very much.
John and Inge enjoyed raising their family, summering at their cabin on Lake Whatcom, camping trips around the Northwest with the family and later together in their camper van, even venturing up the Al-Can Highway to Alaska in 1988.
The family spent time boating and camping in the San Juan Islands during the 1960s and ’70s and, in later years, John and Inge were frequent visitors to San Juan Island, visiting their daughter and grandson and the friends they had here.
She will be remembered as a very sweet, loving woman who enjoyed her family and was devoted to her children and grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by two sons, Paul Stephan Johnson and Eric Thor Johnson, and her beloved husband John.
She leaves behind her son and daughter-in-law, Robert Carl and Shauna Lee Johnson of Ballard; her daughter, Ellen Louise Johnson of Friday Harbor; her son, Kurt Daniel Johnson of Chelan; her granddaughter, Lauren Kristen Johnson of Ballard; grandsons, Jacob Robert Johnson of Ballard and John Daniel Johnson of Friday Harbor; her sister Elsa Gudjonsson and her brother Carl Eiriksson, of Reykjavik, Iceland.
We miss her very much but know that she is with Dad and they are dancing together again.
A memorial will be held in Islands Convalescent Center in Friday Harbor on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2-4 p.m.; and in Seattle at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2-6 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Islands Convalescent Center, 660 Spring St., Friday Harbor 98250-8058; or the Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th St., Seattle 98117-6215.
— Family of Inge Elly Johnson
