Mary Helen Johnson, age 91 years, of Montgomery City, MO, died at Audrain Hospital in Mexico, MO, on Tuesday, April 10, 2018. She was born on February 11, 1927 at Fordtran, TX to Louis Smolka and Julia Sykora Smolka. She graduated from St. Joseph Catholic School in Yoakum, TX and worked as a telephone operator in San Antonio. She married Wade Johnson, Jr. of New Florence, MO, on November 15, 1947 in San Antonio, TX where Wade was stationed in the Army Air Force. They eventually moved to Missouri where they lived near Big Spring and Americus and then moved to New Florence. Mary was a homemaker and worked at the shoe factories in Hermann and Jonesburg. She also cooked at the Mandala Restaurant at the junction of Highway 19 and Interstate 70. She later worked in retail. She always enjoyed working and being around other people. She was a wonderful cook and seamstress, making clothing for herself and her family. Later in life she enjoyed line dancing and making beautiful Lone Star Quilts.

Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Wade, on September 6, 1992, two brothers, an unnamed infant and Bohumil Smolka of Fordtran, TX; and three sisters, Elizabeth Korinek and Rosie Dobbs of Yoakum, TX, and Hattie Dycus of San Antonio. She also lost a great-grandchild that died in infancy. She is survived by five children: Allen Johnson of Fulton, Marilyn Smith of Columbia, Ronnie Johnson of New Florence, Marsha Grooms of Mexico, and Louis Johnson of New Florence. She had nine grandchildren and twenty-three great-grandchildren.

Mary was a member of the Immaculate Conception Church where she sang in the choir, cleaned house, for the priests and participated in children's programs. She hosted three boys from Ireland through the church's youth exchange program with the Irish churches in the '90's. She liked to travel, taking trips to Texas many times, as well as a trip to Germany to see her son, Allen, and his family, and a trip to Italy with her sister-in-law. She took cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska.

Visitation and a mass of Christian Burial took place Friday, April 13, 2018 at 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM and she was laid to rest beside her husband, Wade, at the New Florence Cemetery. Pall Bearers were grandsons and great-grandsons, Jason Smith, Laine Smith, Cory Johnson, Jacob Johnson, Wade Atkinson and Louis Johnson.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Immaculate Conception Church, Montgomery City, MO.