Lavern K. Johnson

LaVern K. Johnson was born on October 6, 1951, son of Vernon and Gloria Siemers Johnson in Montevideo, Minnesota. He passed away on Monday July 21, 2014 at the age of 62 from ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
He was baptized and confirmed into the Lutheran faith at St. Lucas Lutheran Church in rural Cottonwood, Minnesota. He graduated from Clarkfield High School with the class of 1969 and later attended Canby Technical College graduating in 1970. LaVern was united in marriage to Becky Willander on June 17, 1972 at Augustana Lutheran Church in Clarkfield, Minnesota and they were blessed with the birth of three children.
LaVern worked for Miller Equipment where he fixed and designed new parts. After welding several years he went to work for Viessman Trucking and farmed the family farm. Later he worked for the Yellow County Highway Department where he drove gravel truck & snow plow and did their fabrication. He was also a volunteer fire fighter for over 25 years.
In 1996 he left the county to start Johnson Transport with his son, Trevor, and in 2004 he started Silverline Truckwash in Denison Iowa.
Vern was very talented whether he was fixing, designing or building things. There were several components of the truck wash that he designed and built himself because the parts he needed didn’t even exist.
His most recent business venture was “Earth to Earth” compost. He started bagging the compost from the livestock trailers they washed.
Throughout the years LaVern participated in bowling and golf leagues; he also enjoyed boating and camping on the weekends. Prior to his Iowa move, he could be found one to two times a day having coffee uptown with his friends. Some of his other favorite activities included hunting, singing karaoke and dancing. Vern was almost always the first one on the dance floor.
LaVern is proceeded in death by his father, Vernon; niece Tina and her husband Walter; and nephews Mark and Todd. Survivors include his former wife and close friend Becky; three children, Tracy and her husband Scott, Trevor and his wife Mandi, Travis; 9 grandchildren, Hayli, Victoria, Cierah, Ally, Taytum, Chandler, Paige, Lucas and Reese; his mother Gloria; two sisters, Phyllis and husband Dan, Paulette; 3 brothers, Marlynn and wife Fern, Loren and wife Gina, Richard; great grand children; and several great nieces and nephews.