Hazel O. Johnson

My grandma raised 8 kids in a 2-bedroom house, survived the Kansas Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the loss of a 34-year old son and a baby girl, for starters. She was the single most no-nonsense woman I've ever known, and I mean that as a compliment. She raised a family full of stubborn, blunt, no-nonsense people, which also passed down to more than one of the generation after that, too. ;) Though he didn't survive, we named our second son after her. Since I couldn't bear to name a little girl either Hazel or Orrel in this day and age, we gave our son the middle name of Houghton, her maiden name. She passed away peacefully in her sleep this morning just shy of 97 years old. If you have to die, and we all do, living pretty much independently through the end, going to sleep on earth and waking up in heaven without even knowing the difference, well, that's about as good as you can hope for!