GOLDEN VALLEY, MN (May 24, 2018) – Linnea (Sandberg) Johnson, widow of retired Covenant minister Earl Johnson, died Wednesday, May 23. She was 87.
Linnea was born in Chicago on November 29, 1930, to Thorsten and Edith Sandberg.
She married Earl on June 9, 1951.
The couple served Covenant Churches in St. Paul and Red Wing, Minnesota; Lincoln, Nebraska; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Blue Island, Illinois; Aberdeen, Washington; and Ft. Dodge, Iowa. They also worked as part of the counseling staff at the Covenant Children’s Home in Princeton, Illinois. He retired after pastoring the Covenant congregation in Oberlin, Kansas.
Linnea was a gifted musician. When she was young and began taking piano lessons, she would always ask her teacher to play the pieces for her. She would return the next week and play everything perfectly. This went on for three years until her teacher finally caught on that Linnea was playing by ear and could not read the notes on the page.
She is survived by her daughter Beverly Scripter and son Roger Johnson, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Earl, and daughter Kathleen Johnson, who died at the age of two from complications related to chicken pox.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, at Covenant Village of Golden Valley.
