DONALD M. JOHNSON , 90, of Cherokee, Iowa, passed away Monday evening, March 24, 2014, in the Countryside Estates at Cherokee, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, March 29 ^th , at 10:30 a.m. at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, rural Cherokee, Iowa. Pastor Jeff Harris will officiate. Burial will be in the Good Hope Cemetery rural Cherokee. There will be a family prayer service at 10:15 a.m. at the church on Saturday. Visitation will be on Friday from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. with the family present from

6 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee.

Donald was born at Cherokee, Iowa, on January 24, 1924, to Edgar and Laura (Hahn) Johnson of rural Cherokee together with a twin sister, Doris Marcella, said sister having passed away in infancy. Donald attended rural school in Silver Township and graduated from Aurelia High School in 1942. Donald remained with his farming father during the war years. Later he attended the National School of Business in Sioux City; he accepted employment as secretary to Federal District Judge Henry N. Graven of Greene, Iowa. Judge Graven was the sole judge of the Judicial Northern District of Iowa, the court points of the Northern District being Mason City, Fort Dodge, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Dubuque, and Sioux City. Donald's career with the court was solely as the judge's secretary and not as a court reporter as many had assumed. When Judge Graven obtained the status as Senior United States Judge, he was assigned to many Federal District Courts where there was congestion due to shortages of judges. Judge Graven was a very able judge and received these assignments by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Donald accompanied his judge on these assignments of quite some duration, having gone to New York City, NY, Tampa, FL., New Orleans, LA, Los Angeles, CA, Houston, Pecos, El Paso, and San Antonio, TX and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Upon the Judge's death, Donald's employment was ceased. He remained in Greene three years thereafter and he returned to Cherokee for his retirement years.

Donald became a member of his family's church, Mount Olive Baptist, in rural Cherokee, at the age of 10 and always retained his membership there. In very recent years, worshipped regularly and attended at Cherokee's First Baptist Church, both churches constituting the Cherokee Baptist Parish.

Upon returning to Cherokee in his early hears he traveled to ethnic festivals and all 50 states. He had an appreciation for the decorative arts. Although of Swedish heritage, he favored the Norwegian rosemaling and collected it extensively for several years. For numerous years he had memberships in several Scandinavian organizations and museums. Donald was rather widely traveled in Europe and throughout the United States. As he matured to advance years his travels were lessened. Locally he could usually be found at the Cherokee Public Library. He had varied interests; he liked Christian music and that of Broadway theatre as well as classical music; he was especially fond of Ragtime music and sought to find it in distant places, but disliked the trendy jazz so prevalent in the music world.

Donald was preceded in death by his parents and twin sister; also five half-brothers- Leonard, Howard, Homer, George "Melvin," and Dale Anderson; also three nephews Richard Anderson, DeVere Anderson, and Carl Anderson.

Surviving is a nephew Larry Anderson of Honolulu, Hawaii; three nieces Carol (Marvin) Peterson of Cherokee, Iowa; DyAnne Broveak of North Sioux City, South Dakota; Kathleen Sexton of Parrotsville, Tennessee; also numerous great nephews and nieces.