Poppa

Since the passing of my father-in-law, William F. Johnson, I just can't seem to get back into a rhythm. I must be suffering from "Car Lag" which is a form of "Jet Lag" caused by automobile travel. I feel like my head is in a cloud most of the time, just when I have a lot of loose ends to clean up. As if that was not enough, every time I look through his papers it brings the memories flooding back and I have to take a break.

At the services in Oklahoma, we did a pictorial presentation of his life set to the tune of "Oh my PaPa" that was very touching. His cousin, Chaplain Richard Betts was one of those officiating, and delivered an equally touching eulogy. We all went to Ward's Chapel Cemetery where he was laid to rest next to his wife Anna Bell Betts. The cemetery is small, probably containing less than 800 gravesites, and is in a remote country location near the intersection of Ward's Chapel Road and Oklahoma State Highway 7. The sun was shining at the graveside services and all his family from California and friends from in an around Atoka were there.

Since we returned home, I'm learning that Poppa was a very active person right to the end. His affairs are in pretty good order, but he was so involved I'll probably be the next several months notifying his associates and closing accounts. Poppa never threw away anything, and the hard part is just separating what is important from that which is not! The good part is that I have another trove of documented family history to add to my files. Among his papers, I found WWII ration books for gasoline and tires that were issued to his father William Henry Johnson!

I think the habit of saving everything is something born of the depression era when flour sacks were turned into clothing and tableware came in cereal boxes.

Traveling

It was a long trip to Oklahoma and back but we made it.  We chose to take the southern route (I-10) this time in lieu of our usual trip along I-40.  We thought this would give us a change of scenery and make the drive more enjoyable.  What the hell was I thinking?  The first thousand miles was unbroken desert!  The only change we noticed was in the type of cactus plants we could see.

We had pretty much decided not to return the same way, but a last minute snowstorm forced us to take the southern route home as well.  The 100 mile trip from Atoka, OK to Dallas, Tx was a site to behold and had I known how treacherous it was I would have waited out the snowstorm.  We saw no less then 100 vehicles that had spun out and were in ditches or worse.  Some of the accidents had happened during the night and the owners had left their vehicles stranded in the snow drifts, but many others had just recently occurred and the owners were still in their cars, many still had stunned looks on their faces indicating we had just missed the wild event.  About ten miles east of Dallas, we left all that behind and were in bright sunshine.

We have made this drive several times over the past couple of years, and each time we try to find variations on our route.  Once, we took a side trip to Roswell to see if we could spot any aliens.  We did not.  We did see the McDonald's restaurant that was built to look like a flying saucer.  How tacky is that!  On another trip, we went to see Santa Fe in New Mexico, one of the most historic places west of the Mississippi River.  From there we continued north to the artists community of Taos, NM, a very worthwhile place to visit, and then continued west through the painted desert and on to the Grand Canyon where he turned south again and rejoined the traffic on the I-40 for the remainder of the trip, Ho Hum.

Ch 9, Grandchildren and Retirement

Immediately after Gail’s high school graduation ceremony, in June of 1963, the family moved once again.

This time it was off to sunny Southern California, to the small town of Sunnymead (now Moreno Valley) just outside of Riverside CA, and an assignment to March AFB. It was at March AFB that Freeland was promoted to Senior Master Sergeant, which required him to extend his enlistment for two more years. Annabell (Betts) continued her nursing career at the base hospital, and Gail enrolled for her first semester at Riverside City College. The Johnsons were in Sunnymead for less than a year when they purchased a home new home on Starcrest Drive just a few miles from the base. A few months later, Gail’s future husband, Robert Henderson moved into a new home next door to the Johnsons. Freeland remained at March AFB for the remainder of his Air Force Career, finally retiring in 1968.

After his Air Force retirement, Freeland studied and received his real estate license and began another career buying and selling properties around the area. In a short time, he had purchased three other homes on Starcrest Drive, and donated one of them to Robert and his daughter Gail when they returned from their enlistment in the Air Force. He also dabbled in mobile homes and even opened a parts store for a while in Rubidoux, just across the river from Riverside.

Carey and James Adam Henderson

In 1974, Freeland's daughter, Gail, gave birth to his first and only granddaughter, Carey Henderson. In 1978 his first grandson arrived, James Adam Henderson. The Johnson and Henderson families all lived in close proximity to each other in Moreno Valley for several years and, in due time, Carey grew to adulthood and had a child of her own who she named Kylee Alexis, Freeland’s first great granddaughter.

Kylee Alexis

Several years after the birth of Kylee, Carey delivered William Johnson's only great grandson, Caden, Robert Adams.

 Caden Robert Adams

After about 23 years of the California business climate, Freeland got the Wanderlust and longed to return to his roots in Oklahoma. It is now 1989 and, Freeland had amassed enough funds to purchase land in Cherokee County, Oklahoma with the intention of developing residential property. As luck would have it, the failing health of his mother-in-law, Lennie Betts caused him to take a detour to Atoka, Oklahoma to care for her. While in Atoka, Freeland purchased another 80 acres and, as he put it, went into the cow business with Annabell’s cousin, Richard Betts. It wasn’t long before he was completely involved and had over 75 head of cattle and was focused on the "cow/calf business" end of the industry.

By the time Lennie Betts passed away in January of 1997, Freeland was firmly entrenched in the local economy and decided to stay in Atoka. He lives there today (2005) with his wife of 62 years, Annabell Betts. After his ritual early morning "board meetings" at the local McDonald’s restaurant, with the other cattlemen of the area, he can usually be found tending to his cattle or gathering the hay from his 80 acres of grass.

Note:  Since this biography was written, Williams' wife, Anna Bell passed away in October of 2006.  She is buried in Wards Chapel cemetery in her hometown of Atoka, Oklahoma.

Note:  Since I started posting this biography, William Freeland Johnson passed away and, by now, is buried next to his wife Anna Bell at Wards Chapel cemetery in Atoka, Oklahoma.  For our family, he was the last of his generation.  For us, an era has passed.  We love you PaPa.

Ch 8, Military Life and Children

In the spring of 1942 Freeland accepted an invitation from his nephew, Henry Bradshaw, to accompany him on a double date with a nurse who was attending school at the Baptist Hospital in Muscogee Oklahoma.

 Anna Bell Betts, 1941

The young nurse’s name was Anna Bell Betts, and she was from Atoka Oklahoma. They saw each other on and off for two years and were eventually married in Odessa, Texas on May 7th, 1943. Freeland and "Betts" spent most of the war years at Odessa/Midland AFB and he attained the rank of Master Sergeant during that time. He also undertook the duties of "Line Chief" before he left there in December, 1945 to take up duties with the 33rd Fighter Wing in "First and Fellbrook" Germany, near Munich.

 William Freeland in Germany, 1946

Freeland had the opportunity, after he arrived in Germany, to visit the Jewish internment camps and see firsthand, the evidence of the atrocities that took place under the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler. The destruction in Munich was such that the rubble in the streets, even after it had been bulldozed to the sides, only afforded one way traffic. The autobahn was a continual line, on both sides, of displaced persons and families with no apparent place to go. Their plight was discomforting to most of the military personnel at the time. One striking memory is of the Russian military hauling train loads of goods back to the motherland. Freeland remembers open boxcars full of toilets, bathtubs, and other plumbing fixtures.

 

Anna Gail Johnson, 1946

Freeland and Bett’s first child, Anna Gail, was born on the 24th of November 1945, and it was a full year before his wife and daughter would join him in Germany. Freeland received a telegram informing him that his wife and daughter would be arriving at a specific time and date, but immediately thereafter he received another telegram telling him that his daughter had taken ill and they would not be arriving as planned, so he did not make the rendezvous. To his dismay, the family arrived as scheduled and he suffered a severe tongue lashing from the chaplain for not being a responsible husband and father. Upon arrival at their final destination, they were assigned quarters "off-base" and were required to have a maid in an effort to put the German people back to work and help re-build the German economy.

Aside from the obvious inconveniences of being stationed in a "war-torn" country, their stay in Germany was a good experience. As the German economy began to recover, they were able to procure transportation in the form of a 1947 Chevrolet with a speedometer that registered Kilometers/hr instead of the usual Miles/hr. Freeland paid $1,200 for it and had it shipped over. Soon, the German bakeries were back in business and fresh bread was available, but many of the wives who had arrived to be with their husbands were appalled when the bread was delivered "unwrapped." It wasn’t long before the Germans began bagging their bread. While in Germany, the family also had the opportunity to visit Prague Czechoslovakia and Austria.

The S.S. Sultan

In November 1948, Freeland, "Betts" and Gail shipped out of Bremerhaven Germany for their return trip to the "States." They sailed on the S.S. Sultan for the six day trip to New York. After a couple of days in New York, they picked up their Chevrolet and headed West for Muscogee Oklahoma. They rested in Muscogee for about a month before Freeland left "Betts" and Gail and proceeded to his next duty station at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas. It wasn’t long before he found accommodations and had the family join him. Freeland remained at Carswell for about a year while he served as "Flight Engineer" on an assortment of different aircraft and traded in the old 47’ Chevy for a brand new "Baby Cadillac," more commonly know as a 1949 Chevrolet Sedan.

In late 1949, Freeland’s piled the family into their new Chevy and headed to his next duty station at McDill AFB in Tampa Florida, but they took a detour to Wichita, Kansas for 18 months while Freeland attended classes and trained his maintenance crews at the Boeing Aircraft Factory to learn the electrical system on a B-47 airplane. After the completion of this training period, the family continued their journey to Tampa, Florida, where Freeland took up duties as the Superintendent of Flight line Maintenance in 1951.

 Anna Bell, Gail, and William at McDill AFB, 1954

Gail started school at McDill AFB. The Johnson’s were at McDill for a full, seven long years during which time they purchased yet another Chevrolet, this time a 1952 Chevrolet Bel-Air "ragtop." They kept that "ragtop" for their full tour at McDill AFB, and sold it upon arrival at their next duty station at Lake Charles AFB in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1958. They traded it for a 1959 Ford Sedan "Straight Six." It was at Lake Charles that Betts put her nurses training to good use and took a job as an "operating room" nurse at the local hospital, and Gail attended her first year of High School.

The family was only in Louisiana for about two years before another re-assignment, in early 1961, had them driving the "Straight Six" to Oscoda Michigan and Wurtsmith AFB. It was here that Gail graduated from High School and Betts honed her nursing skills at the base hospital.

Freeland was promoted to "Maintenance Control" and helped to accommodate the maintenance requirements of his own squadron plus the added responsibility of three squadrons (Wing) of B-52’s that were moved from the Miami area during the Cuban Missile Crisis.