Shirley Johnson

Shirley Johnson, most recently of Madison, WI, passed away peacefully on July 16, 2025, with her daughter, Jana, and her granddaughter, Claire, by her side. Shirley was 92 ½ years old.

She lived an amazing, full, loving, faith filled, honorable and generous life, that ended a year after being diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer. She took her treatment head on like the strong woman she is, but it was a fight her body had already lost. She took charge of her life to the end. For those that know her, it is no surprise that she continued to drive, shop, play the piano, watch NASCAR, play games, drink coffee, hang out with her friends and encourage others until her body could no longer beat the fatigue and weakness of cancer. She was unapologetically herself. She loved God, her family and her friends. Shirley will be greatly missed.

Shirley grew up in Milwaukee and Grantsburg, WI. Her father died when she was 3 and Shirley, her mother and infant sister Nancy, relied heavily on her Aunt and Uncle to help support them. We recently learned that it was in this painful time of her young life that Shirley watched her mom lean on Jesus for all they needed. It set her heart on faithfully following Jesus all her life. Her mother later met her second husband in Grantsburg, WI. Shirley’s brother Tim was then born. Shirley lived in Grantsburg until she went to college.

Shirley was a born teacher. She told us that when she went to college, women only had three choices (nurse, secretary or teacher), and she chose teacher. Even though she had limited choices, being a teacher was her true calling, she is a teacher through and through. She spent over thirty years teaching in the Milwaukee public schools. She focused on middle school English and Social Studies. She approached work as she did her life. She was extremely professional and believed one should dress well and be respectful. She wore a suit and heels to work every day as a middle school teacher. 😊 She also hosted the Webster Junior High scrabble club. She retired at 63 and has continued to teach (and learn) ever since. She was the most inquisitive person and wanted to understand how everything worked.

She met Norman Johnson at an Intervarsity gathering at the University of WI-Superior where they both went to college. As soon as she saw him, she said to her friend, “He’s mine”. Well, she was right. They were married August 18, 1956, and were married for 61 years until he passed away from Dementia/Alzheimer’s in March of 2018. Norman and Shirley had two daughters, Kristen and Jana. They built their life as a family of 4 in Milwaukee (Brown Deer), WI. They were very involved in church (Bethlehem Baptist/Deerwood Baptist Church), Shirley was the choir director and played the piano and Norman was the Sunday School Superintendent & Deacon. They enjoyed family vacations in the summer, as well as biking, skiing and sailing.

After Kristen and Jana were married and off building their own lives, Shirley and Norman retired and moved to Woodbury, MN. This allowed Shirley to be closer to her sister and brother, who lived in the twin cities, and closer to her mom, who still lived in Grantsburg. They were also closer to Norman’s family in Ashland, WI. They built a lovely new house and started new friendships, found new bike routes, took on many new projects and learned about new places to shop. They lived there for 22 years, building beautiful memories of vacations and time with family. Shirley spent more time on hobbies, such as counted cross stitch, piano, gardening, and she took up quilting. Her quilts are each an incredible work of art and labor of love. She also continued to be the family historian documenting vacations, times with family, and tracking down information about her ancestors. Shirley and Norman enjoyed over 20 years in Woodbury together, however, later in those years, Norman began to get sick. Eventually, he had to move into an assisted living facility called Woodbury Estates where he lived for 3 and a half years. Shirley visited Norman every day and supported him with complete love, respect and devotion. She also treated all the others living at Woodbury Estates with compassion and respect. She made them all feel seen and special. She built relationships with the workers, the pastor and other residents. After Norman passed away in 2018, Kristen and Jana convinced Shirley to move to Madison, WI to be close to Jana. She sold her home and moved, right around her 86th birthday. She was not super excited, but took the challenge and moved to a 2 bedroom apartment at Coventry Village retirement community. To the surprise of her family, she was able to recreate her Woodbury home in her Madison apartment, just in a smaller footprint.

As she did at each of her previous residences, she started building a community that would be there for her until the end. She brought her energy, her opinions, her impeccable sense of fashion, her talent as a pianist, her conversational skills and most importantly, her ability to notice, take interest and bless others. She proved that it is never too late to grow existing relationships or to build new friendships. We are so thankful and appreciative of her wonderful community at Coventry Village. They brought so much joy to Shirley, and we are forever grateful for their love and caring for her.

Shirley’s significant impact on others was further evident in the fact that her family and friends, from near and far, visited frequently this past year to spend as much time with her as possible. At one point we had to tell everyone that we needed to limit the visits to every other week. The visits, while sometimes hectic, were so wonderful.

Shirley is survived by her daughter Kristen and her husband Greg, her daughter Jana and her husband Paul, and each of their families including Lindsay (Jeff) and their children Silas, Weston and Izzy, Katelyn (Brian) and their children Asher and Corbin, Jon (Taylor), Nathan, Claire, Shirley’s sister Nancy and her brother Tim, and lots of extended family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to:

- Wounded Warrior Project - https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org

- Agrace Hospice Care – www.agrace.org

Please share your memories at www.cressfuneralservice.com

Cress Center

6021 University Ave. Madison

(608) 238-8406