Adele Gertrude Harsh was born in was born, August 10, 1917 on the family farm on Squirrel Hollow Road in Glenhaven, WI to Leo and Margaret Harsh. The farm and the town are on the banks of the Mississippi in Grant County.

She was baptized Laurentia Gertrude; because, as the parish priest insisted, a child should be named after a saint (Laurentia is the female version of Lawrence). However, this name appears only on her baptismal certificate. At some point some classmates did find out about it and part of her school years were spent with the nickname Larry; a name she did not relish.

She attended first grade in what was called 'the little brick school" just east of the farm. However, to prepare for her first communion in second grade, she lived with her maternal grandmother Helena Rauch, just across the road from St. Mary's Church in Glenhaven. She again attended the little brick school in grades 3 to 5 and in grade 6, she again attended St. Mary's School, walking several miles down the road, but often cutting across farm fields to shorten the distance. 

Her childhood recollections of life on the farm include grinding sorghum for molasses, cold mutton sandwiches (which is why she didn't like lamb) and her brothers Norbert and Gene catching catfish for supper from the Mississippi.

She remembers her mother as often sitting by the stove and telling her and her siblings fanciful stories, though she could not remember any particular story.

She moved with her family to Marshfield in 1930 where she attended Marshfield schools, graduating from McKinley High in 1935. The day after graduation, she enrolled in a city-funded training program at Purdy Jr. High for work at Weinbrenner, who had just moved to town. At Weinbrenner she was a "back shoe girl,; inspecting shoes as part of quality control. She wasn't the most popular person in the plant since every time she sent a shoe back, it meant the sewing operators had to redo them and as they were paid piece work, this cut into their earnings. She earned the sum of $10.00 a week. 

While money in the Harsh household was slim, Adele often dressed well by shopping; at good stores and then copying the designs and making them up herself. She recalled that during her high school years and perhaps after she would wrap her bust line with towels to flatten herself to be more in style.

She met her future husband on Easter Sunday, April 12, 1936 when her and her older sister Marcella (Sally [Seimers]) went to dinner at Christy's Restaurant (now occupied by the Children's Shop). On the way home at the corner of 9th and Cedar, two friends Helen Riplinger and Stan Rochow asked them if they wanted to ride with them in a friend's Studebaker - owned and driven by Herb Johnson. Herb and Adele were engaged on Christmas Day 1937. Opening presents on that Christmas Morning, Adele had a box about a foot square, she opened it only to find another box, then another and then another, finally in a box less than 2 inches square, she came to her engagement diamond.

She married Herb, May 17th 1938., first in a civil ceremony in Waupaca and later that day in LaCrosse in a Catholic ceremony performed in the rectory of St. Joseph's Cathedral by the rector, Msgr. Paape. The witnesses were life long friends, Ernie and Doris Collier. The double ceremony was explained as a concession to both families, Herber father being opposed to his marrying a Catholic.

Adele did not work outside of the home for many years, however in the late 50's, she did begin work during the Christmas Season at Agnes Noll's gift shop, she also ran a spring garden center at the H. Ebbe Co. and later she worked as a clerk and window display artist at Rice-Rust Pharmacy. She was actually hired at Rice-Rust by her daughter Anne.

Adele was also active in many church related groups at St. John's, such as Rosary Altar Society, DCCW and the Foresters as well as a long association with Scouting. She also was one of the original members of the St. Joseph's Hospital Auxiliary.

After the death of her husband, Herbert, she continued to live at 307 E. Third St., at first her daughter Anne lived with her, later her son Paul, but there were many years along. When asked why she never dated she replied; Your dad is a hard act to follow,; though she did admit to having had some offers. 

Adele maintained the home at 307 E. Third Street partly as a gathering place for her children and grand children. Each holiday, Adele decorated the house. Several Easters, she made a paper stencil and used it to to lay down white carpet cleaner to look like a bunny trail.;

Several times in the 17 years of living alone she would talk about selling the house and moving to an apartment, but didn't until the spring of 1996 when she surprised her children by announcing that she planned to sell the house. The occasion was the annual sibling only reunion on Palm Sunday weekend. As a sign of this, she and the children toured the house, assigning most everything to someone. She put the house on the market in May but stayed there until after May 17th, which would have been she and Herbert 58th wedding anniversary. She moved into her apartment in May. In September she suffered a heart attack which put her into the CCU at St. Joseph's Hospital, on full life support on a Sunday. She struggled with this and on Friday, at her insistence, the life support was removed. Her daughter Kris had arranged for her to enter the Hospice program and after waiting in CCU to make sure she would survive, she was moved to Hospice. All he children visited that weekend, sure it would be the last time they saw her. On Sunday, a week after admittance to the hospital, her doctor surprised everyone by saying he thought she could return home later that week. In point of fact she returned home on a Tuesday. Her daughter Mary came from Virginia to care for her. The following week was a busy one, with Adele shopping, going to church and out to dinner with her friends on Saturday, just as she had been doing for the past 15 years or so. On Wednesday she grew very weak and slept much of the time. On Thursday, October 17, 1997. her daughter Mary took some time off and daughter Barbara and son Paul were there. At about 7:20pm Adele grew restless, Barbara gave her a sponge bath and while Paul was out of the room attempting to contact the hospital, Adele died. However, neither Paul nor Barbara was sure. Her death was that peaceful. It is held by most of the family that Adele had some sort of time schedule and wanted to accomplish something. What that was no one will ever know, however it is also held that very few people have the choice of how they are to die, and Adele apparently was one of those people. She died at home, in her own bed, without medications and tubes, with some of her family there. At the time of her death she had 11 children (9 surviving), 19 grand children (17 surviving) and 3 great grandchildren. Her funeral was a celebration of her life and she was laid to rest beside her husband, son and daughter.

One winter day in about 1943 or 44 Adele was driving a Chevrolet coupe, a car that had only a single front bench seat and a shelf that extended to the rear window. She was going to visit her sister Bea with Barbara and Paul along with her in the car. Turning off of Country Line Road (now Macmillian Ave.) She headed down the very steep hill to cross the Angel Creek bridge. She lost control of the car and ran off the road into the snow bank in the ditch. Barb was sitting in the front seat and Paul was laying on the back shelf behind the seat. Needless to say, everyone went flying about the car. There were no injuries and the car suffered little if any damage. Wounded only was Adele pride. A neighbor of Bea came and pulled the car out of the ditch.

Another car incident happened when the family was going to Grandma Harsch house. The car was a 1920's Buick High- Boy, which Herb had gotten to replace the Chev coupe. It was an old car due to the car shortage during the war. Crossing 4th Street, Adele encountered a city crew repaving the street. The old tar road had been broken up and mounded in the center. (This mound was further broken up, graded out and re-tared). The children in the car, Barb, Paul, Charlie, Dale and probably Susie Seimers shouted for her to take the mound, so she did. The car bounced and threw all the children around the car, several hitting the roof.

Speaking of cars, one of the more unique vehicles the Johnson owned was a 1950 DeSoto Suburban. It was a stretched four door sedan and two-tone green. The car was purchased for the trip taken by the Johnson in 1954 to Virginia. Because of the size of the family it was kept. The car was very large, even by the standard of the day and used light truck tires. At 5 feet tall, Adele was barely visible when she drove it. Comment about town was when you saw a big green car coming with no driver, not to worry, it was only Adele.

As a disciplinarian Adele was very different from many of her contemporaries. Many of her children will tell you that at other homes, mother often shouted at their children and often spanked. Paul can only remember being spanked once, and that was more of a swat. He, Charlie and Barb were bickering in the kitchen, as was their custom. Adele, many months pregnant with someone, came flying down the stairs and caught three butts with a single swipe. It is the only time in memory that see seemed to lose her cool. A more common form of correction or discipline was a softly spoken wish or thought. On the famous eastern trip, when the children were growing restless and beginning to get on Herb rather short fuse, Adele needed only to turn around and say that I think everyone should take a few moments of quiet.; 

Another example of this was with her grandchild Eric. Eric was not known to his parents as a child who took directions easily, usually arguing. One Christmas time when Eric and Aaron were visiting their father, he was making spaghetti. Wondering if she should use another dish, or take the spaghetti straight out of the cooking pan, she commented that That OK, Eric doing the dishes; When Eric wondered out loud about the arrangement, she just repeated, Eric doing the dishes.; That ended that and for the first time in over 25 years, Eric did dishes without a fuss.

Adele was well known for her artistic ability. This extended even to the basement. She decorated each of the doors with pictures appropriate to the room's use (hobby room, fruit cellar, shower room, ironing board etc.) As well as painting vines twining up each of the poles in the basement. Much of the work was done on laundry days (with at least two children in diapers at this time, laundry days were frequent) Adele had an EZ spin washing machine which needed to be loaded often. She would take whatever children were at home and sit them in the teeter-babe or play pen, turn the radio to WLBL the state radio station, and even bring a coffee pot down and make a day of it.

While growing up, the older children remember that Adele most often had the radio turned to WLBL, the state radio station from Auburndale. It featured classical music, lectures and reading. It was assumed that Adele preferred classical music. To many's surprise, later in life, Adele became very fond of Country and Western music. The car radio was tuned to a CAW station out of Eau Claire and her favorite TV program was Crooks & Chase on the Nashville Network. Adele was also a fan of documentaries watching ACE, Discovery and the History Channel. Although this eclectic taste is not surprising as Adele had a wide range of interests. Learning was one of those interests and she read voraciously, books, magazines and newspapers.

One aspect of Adele that was often missed by many was her highly analytical nature. In groups, Adele often would say very little, but when she did speak, people listened to a carefully reasoned answer to any question. This nature surfaced most in the Hospital. There was nothing more aggravating to Adele than not being told, in detail, what was happening. Once, when a doctor explained what was happening to her son, Adele rose up and told the doctor that SHE WAS IN THE ROOM.

Hospital stays is another source of Adele stories. Most, if not all of Adele's early stays in the hospital were related to child bearing, her later stays due to progressive illness.

One of Adele's own stories was of the time she went to the hospital to give birth. The nurse on duty was told to prep; her. The nurse apparently felt that a woman just coming in was in the first stages of labor and didn't need immediate attention. Much to the nurse's chagrin, Adele was wheeled by her on the way to the delivery room. Sr. Emerica, the head of OB told the nurse, That Mrs. Johnson's 7th ( or 8th or so) child - by now she knows what she doing.;

Another timing/birth story is the time when Frank and Roberta Cassidy were visiting. Roberta was the daughter of long time neighbor Mrs. Shepard. She, Frank, Adele and Herb were having coffee and conversation in the kitchen when Adele announced that it was time.; After telling the Cassidy's to relax and finish their coffee, Adele went up stairs and bathed. Herb remained with an increasingly nervous Frank and Roberta. Adele came down, bathed, dressed and carrying her suitcase. Herb then went and bathed while Adele entertained. Frank and Roberta kept looking at the clock and asking how Adele was doing. Fine; she would reply. When Herb made his appearance, it appeared to Frank and Roberta that they would be leaving. But first, Adele went around watering all of the plants, checking on the progress of childrens' homework, tucking in the youngest and so on. Finally Herb and Adele left the house, much to Frank and Roberta's relief. Sinking into the kitchen chairs and adjusting to their new role as Johnson babysitters they sighed a sigh of relief only to have Herb come back through the door. Forgot the paper!; said Herb. Now at about the end of their rope, Frank and Roberta only looked at each other for a while, then Frank remarked, After so many, they probably know what they're doing.;

Adele went to the hospital in December of 1992. The doctor was afraid that her repaired artery may have been leaking. It turned out not to be true, but she was treated for anemia. She was scheduled to be released New Year's Day, but she prevailed on the doctor to release her New Year's Eve. Paul, who was living with her at the time, had a date for New Years and had mixed feelings. He felt that he should stay home with Adele. When he broached the subject she told him to go anyway, because she had plans to go out with the girls for a few drinks.

When it came to aging, Adele never seemed to, at least in spirit. Her retirement from Rice-Rust was not voluntary. The pharmacy went out of business. When asked if she would get involved with the senior center, she replied that she wouldn't because there too many old folks there.; She was 72 at the time and older than many that the center.