Alice Ryden Johnsen

Alice Ryden Johnsen, 88, was born, raised, and educated in Evanston, Ill., where she was the youngest of three children in a loving Swedish-American family. After graduating high school, she went to work at Continental Bank in Chicago starting as a page. During World War II, she volunteered with the USO, dancing with shy farm boys training for the Army and bolder sailors training at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. By wars end, she was working in a section of the bank where so many couples met and married including herself and her beloved husband Milton -- that it was known as the matrimonial department. After her marriage, she settled into a creative life as a wife and mother to their son Terry. The family moved to Miami in 1952, living first in Biscayne Gardens and then in the North Dade Country Club neighborhood. She was a member of Beta Sigma Phi and donated much of her time and energies to a variety of charities. A very social person, she organized myriad neighborhood activities, including block parties, a community newsletter, pet shows, and bridge clubs. She expressed her creative side by taking on nearly every type of handcraft, and excelling at all of them. Upon her sons marriage, she opened her heart and her home to her daughter-in-law, Mary Ruth, and took great joy and was an instrumental influence on her only grandchild, John. Besides Terry, Mary Ruth, and John, she is survived by Johns wife, Breanne; great-granddaughter Charlotte; nephews John Ryden, James Alcoba and James Johnsen and their wives Marilyn Alcoba and Claudia Johnsen; niece Joanne Ryden; and sister-in-law Yvonne Ryden.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Sunday, November 21, at Fred Hunters Hollywood Memorial Gardens Home, 6301 Taft St., Hollywood. The family welcomes flowers or a donation in Alices memory to the Disabled Veterans of America.

http://videos.lifetributes.com/176378