Robert “Bob” Johnson
Robert “Bob” Johnson passed away peacefully in his sleep at home just before midnight on Friday, April 26, 2024. He was 95, just five weeks short of his 96th birthday.
Bob was born in Woodstock, Minn., on June 3, 1928, when he was unexpectedly born in the home of his maternal grandparents during a visit by his parents Nels Johnson and Sadie (Peterson) Johnson.
He lived almost his entire life in Pipestone, Minn., where his father owned and operated a barbershop. During high school, Bob worked part time for the railroad, driving spikes into railroad ties.
He graduated from Pipestone High School in 1946. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean War, soon serving in a paratrooper company known as the Hells Angels. During leave, he returned to Pipestone and married DeVonna “Dee” Hind on Nov. 11, 1951.
After his discharge, the couple remained in Pipestone, where they raised their family. During his life he worked for a number of companies, including Hyde Oil and HyPane Gas Company. At the same time, he raised and showed Quarter Horses for several decades.
One of his lasting legacies is his love of animals. At one time while mowing hay, he accidently hit a mother quail, stopped and found her nest of eggs, brought them home and built an incubator. He raised the chicks until they were old enough to fly and released them. He also rescued an injured piglet on the highway that must have fallen off a truck, took it home and nursed it back to health, and later teaching her tricks. While he was working, he discovered a feral dog in a culvert with a litter of pups. After that, he stopped by the local butcher shop and collected scraps and bones every other day and left them near the culvert.
Bob had a quiet demeanor and a high moral compass. He leaves his family with the philosophical adage, “It could always be worse.” He believed his cup was always more than half full.
The Pipestone community may best remember him for walking his Sheltie around town and to the Pipestone National Monument almost every day.
He was preceded in death by two brothers, Junior Nels and Jack; his sister Marilyn Pribyl; his son Bryan in 2005, and wife Dee in 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic, when he moved to Montana to live with daughter Kym Johnson O’Connell (and husband Mark Todd) for the past four years.
In addition to Kym, he is also lovingly remembered by his surviving sister Patty (and husband LeRoy) Graphenteen, of Mansfield, Ohio; three granddaughters, Egan O’Connell (and husband Jim Workman}, of Troy, Mont.; Ashlin O’Connell (and wife Barb Armstrong), of Cardwell, Mont.; and Whitney (and husband David) Viger, of Denver, Colo.; five great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The date of graveside services at Jasper Cemetery in Pipestone County, Minn., will be announced later this summer.
Please visit below to offer the family a condolence or to share a memory of Bob.
Axelson Funeral and Cremation Services has been privileged to care for Bob and his family.
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Steve Maki says
Sorry to hear of Bob’s passing. We lived for a few years across the street in Pipestone 60 years ago. I remember him as well as others in your family from my family’s time living in Pipestone.
My Condolences
Steve Maki