Johanna Keiser

She was born in Franzfeld, Yugoslavia January 29, 1935, the second and first surviving child of Johanna (Uhlmer) Frey and Fredric Frey.

World War II started about when she was seven. She and her brother would hide from soldiers in the pigeon loft. Eventually she, her Mom and brother were evicted from their home. They were placed in a Nazi concentration camp where they survived for four years. Upon release the family made their way across the country to Germany where they either stayed with family or some people who took them in.

When Johanna was 17 they came via boat to Ellis Island, NY. They were sent by train to Mansfield, OH. She took an ESL class. She, her mother and her aunt went to work for the Mansfield Knitting Company.

Her father had been conscripted by the German Army while they were still in Europe. They hadn’t seen him for ten years. After coming to the States, the Red Cross found him in a P.O.W. camp in England. He and his family were reunited.

Johanna met Harold Hugo Keiser at a dance and eventually married on May 28, 1956. They had two daughters. The marriage lasted about 18 years.

Johanna was a hard worker. She eventually quit the Knitting Mill to clean houses for a variety of regular customers. She cleaned banks, doctors’ offices and any other opportunity that came along. She was even the dishwasher for Hill Top Restaurant on the weekends when her oldest waitressed there. Her last job was with Square J, where she brought home extra work all the time.

Although she did not go to church very often, she made sure her girls went every Sunday to the Mansfield Baptist Temple via their bus ministry. She did a Bible study every night before bedtime out of a German calendar her mother ordered every year.

She quit Square J when her father passed to take care of her mother who’d been moved into Johanna’s home. She babysat her twin grandsons during this time too. She also became the neighborhood paper delivery woman for The Mansfield News Journal eventually taking on four routes! Her mother passed four years later.

Johanna proudly became a citizen of the United States in August of 1989.

At 65 years of age she was diagnosed with breast cancer that the doc said she’d had for five to seven years. She had treatment and beat the odds!

After her stroke in 2012 due to undiagnosed high blood pressure, her younger daughter became her full time caretaker. Seven years later she was diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's.

She left us with many fond memories. Her home was a gathering place for her daughters, her grandsons and her nieces and their children. She was “Tante Johanna”.

She was predeceased by her mother, father, an unknown older baby brother, her Aunt Christine Hildenbrandt, her Aunt’s husband and son, her brother Fred Frey and his wife Mary Jane (Calhoun) Frey.

She is survived by her daughters, Linda (David) Ingersoll of Kent, WA., Diane (Stan) Smith of Mansfield, OH, her twin grandsons Mike Smith of Mansfield, OH, and Mitch (Elizabeth) Smith of Mansfield, OH, her nephew Tim Frey of Tucson AZ, her nieces Chris (Dave) Wright of Shelby, OH, Joann (Ray) Wolfe of Mansfield, OH., Patty (Bryan) Lutz of Mansfield, OH., her sister-in-law Janet (Charles) Bender of Loudonville, OH. and their children and grandchildren.

Johanna’s family thanks SouthernCare Hospice Service for their extraordinary support and help.

A gathering for family and friends will be held from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at the Wappner Cremation Center, 1327 Ashland Road, Mansfield.

Wappner Cremation Center is honored to serve the family of Johanna Keiser.