Rose C. Johnson

Rose C. Johnson, a cherished resident of Fort Wayne, Indiana, passed away on December 12, 2025, at the age of 99. Born on October 17, 1926, Rose lived a long and fulfilling life, a daughter of the late Oswald and Leona (Paluszak) Miller.

Rose loved God, going to church, and praying the Rosary. Rose loved Art for 78 years. Mom loved her family and knew just what to do for each of us. Rose loved her children's spouses as her own. Rose and Art loved visits from grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Rose loved cooking and baking everything with mostly her tried and true recipe. If it looked right, felt right, tasted right, it was right. Mom always made our favorite foods, cakes, and pies on our birthday right up to this year. Rose loved baking pies, at times filling three or four of her special recipe flaky pie crusts with homemade butterscotch, coconut cream, and chocolate pudding topped with a tempting slow baked meringue. Rose also made cherry, pumpkin, pecan, apple, and black raspberry, Art's favorite. Rose loved celebrating holidays with her family and extended family. Rose and her siblings took turns hosting thirty or more, with each family bringing a favorite dish to the feast. Rose loved baking Christmas cookies with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. The preparing, decorating, and celebrating extended through the entire season from Advent to Christmas to the Feast of the Three Kings. Rose loved her large Christmas Crib and village made with rocks collected on their travels and kept up all year to remind everyone of Jesus' birth, the true meaning of Christmas. At Easter, Rose loved baking pecan sticky buns, butter cream frosted cinnamon rolls, and fruit-filled hot cross buns signifying Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. Rose's marble cake, with a recipe passed down from her grandmother, was a treat like no other. Rose loved her dogs Nutmeg, who followed her home from school, Pokey even when he broke the thermopane door, and Cadeau who also loved her favorite foods of spaghetti and ice cream while sitting on her lap. Rose loved tigers, her Chinese calendar symbol, and animal print clothes. Rose loved family vacations like fishing for walleye in Canada and making a shore lunch on a lake island. Rose loved Art pointing out morel mushrooms for her on family trips to Michigan in their motorhome with a stop at Jones' Ice Cream in Baldwin. Rose loved gathering a large collection of unusual banks from secondhand stores and yard sales. Rose loved reading the entire Left Behind series of books and countless other favorite authors, especially fiction with a historical setting. Rose wore out several sewing machines making clothes for her family and beautiful square dancing outfits for Art and her. Rose loved to make requested tasty dishes and desserts for the Checkerboards Square Dance Club to enjoy after dancing. Her homemade chicken and biscuits and hot fudge ice cream topping always disappeared quickly.

Rose loved her parents and four siblings. While growing up during the depression, her dad moved around to find various jobs. When he was working on the railroad in Willard, Ohio, Rose and her family moved to an apartment there to be close to their dad while still keeping their home in Garrett. Rose and Mary Helen, her older sister, loved helping their family by bringing the laundry home to Garrett on the railroad and back again. Rose loved cooking lunches for the downtown workers of Garrett with her classmates in high school at St. Joseph's School. Rose loved working at Christian's Drug Store lunch counter and especially making Art double chocolate milk shakes while dating. Rose loved selling appliances. After Art's retirement from Wayne Pipe, they moved to Washington State. Rose and Art loved living and working together in an apple orchard in Wenatchee. Rose and Art moved to Lynnwood, where Rose sold 5th wheel travel trailers while Art ran the office. Rose and Art loved living in Washington with their son, Tim, and his family, but also loved moving back to Fort Wayne in 2006 to be near their daughters, Joyce and Christine, and son, Nick, here. Rose and Art loved their good night kiss and hug finished with Rose's, "See you for breakfast!" It was a sure promise of homemade buttermilk pancakes, waffles with whipped egg whites as part of the recipe, or made from scratch flaky baking powder biscuits and her own sausage gravy. Rose and Art were truly one together. Rose gave and gave her whole life with boundless energy up until just recently when her heart gave out after 99 years of giving and loving. Love and loving appear a lot here because Rose loved Art. Mom loved her family. Rose and Art loved life together. We also believe Rose loves being with God, her parents, and siblings while waiting for all of us to be together again in Heaven.

Surviving family include her husband, Arthur J. "Art" Johnson; children, Nicholas Johnson, Christine (Merlin) Reimer, Joyce Husted, and Timothy (Deirdre) Johnson; grandchildren, Michele (Robert) Husted-Galbreath, Andrea (Brent Owens) Gieg, Sarah Reimer, Samantha (Thomas) Ratleff, Meredith (Martin) Crowe, Stephanie (Bryan) Hollar, and Amy Johnson; great grandchildren, Amber Logan, Sydney (Mason) Howard, Aidan Gieg, Evelyn Crowe, Anna Crowe, Dominic Ratleff, Riley Crowe, and Wesley Hollar; and sisters-in-law, Barbara Miller and Mary Ellen Johnson. Besides her parents, she was preceded in passing by her siblings, Mary Helen Redmond, Margaret Bonkoski Muzzillo, John Miller, and William Miller; and son-in-law, Charlie Husted.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 am on Thursday, December 18, 2025, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 943 Powers Street, New Haven, with visitation beginning at 9:30 am, and a rosary beginning at 9:00 am. Burial will follow at Highland Park Cemetery, Fort Wayne. Memorials in Rose's name may be made to Heartland Hospice, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church for Masses, New Haven, or Humane Fort Wayne. Hockemeyer & Miller Funeral Home, Fort Wayne, has been entrusted with her care. Condolences and memories may be left online at www.hockemeyermillerfh.com