Life story

"Lila was a first generation American born in the United States of Norwegian parents during WWII. She grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and finished her High School at Riverhead High School in Long Island. She met her husband, Navy LT Lloyd Johnson, through family friends and were married on Long Island in 1959. She then followed her husband around the world supporting his Naval career and had 2 children, Eric who was born in Japan in 1961 and Chris who was born in Illinois in 1963. Upon Lloyd's military retirement in 1974, they returned to a home they owned in Oxon Hill, MD, where their children finished their schooling. Their children followed their father into military service as officers in the 1980s. Lila was a woman of sacrifice and service, supporting the military careers of her father, brother, husband, and 2 sons spanning more than 6 decades and 5 wars in her lifetime while pursuing her own career as an elementary school teacher. She found time to volunteer on many fronts to include the Officers Wives Club, Boy Scouts, and Lutheran Churches to name a few. In later years she studied Gerontology and counseled returning students at the he University of Maryland. She was proud of her Norwegian heritage, teaching the culture to her sons and taking the family to Norway in the 1980s to visit relatives. In the 1990s she inherited her parent's house in Fort Lauderdale, FLA, where she moved with the second love of her life, Butch McIntire, and enjoyed the visits of children and granchildren. Repeated hurricanes drove them north to Summerfield, FLA, where Butch passed in 2013 and she resided on her own until the last few years of her life when her son Chris came to live with her. She lived long enough to see 3 Great Grandchildren, visiting the oldest Ava, in Cary, NC, upon her birth in 2015. This was "GiGis" last long distance trip before her passing in 2023."