Mayland Christopher Johnson, born March 24, 1929, passed quietly out of this world in the early hours of Oct. 22, 2017, at the age of 88.
After serving his country in the U.S. Army, where he served overseas just after World War Two in France and Germany, he returned home to Minnesota where he met Lila Ruth Hendricks. They were married Oct.18, 1952.
Moving to Lansing, Michigan, Mayland worked at a Ford auto factory on the body assembly line, and, after the births of their two daughters, Denice and Diane, moved their young family to Cordova, Alaska in early 1958, just before statehood.
Amongst his many occupations were Service Transfer, maintenance/boiler man for the school system, freelance carpenter/carpet layer/plumber-boiler man, etc.
He worked for John Wilson/Wilson Construction from the budding years of the outfit for many years, and the Gentry’s at Plumbline from which he “retired.”
After this was when his small, personal subsistence fish kippering/canning operation began, that bloomed into a town-wide service that for the past 20-plus years will be what most remember him for today.
Mayland is remembered as an avid waterfowl hunter and a wise old blacktail deer hunter, and many have hunted from his Mud Bay cabin site throughout the years.
He never passed up an opportunity for the occasional moose, either, but his real passion was mountain goat hunting. One of his nicknames is “the Ol’ Billy Goat,” and his gentle gruffness often resembled the attitude of the quiet animal he loved to pursue.
As a craftsman, there are many a gun case or rack, clock, cedar chest, dresser, baby cradle, etc. adorning homes in town and elsewhere today that he made, as well as the little boxes for the community created from the doors of the old historical U.S. Post Office boxes.
Mayland C. Johnson is survived by his wife of 65 years, Lila Ruth Johnson and his daughter Denice Joy Johnson. His grandchildren, Christian Christopher Johnson, Jack Curtis Jeppson, Angela Dawn Bolin and Daniel Ryan Jeppson. Great-grandchildren: Children of Chris Johnson: Maston Lee, Mykah Grace, Madyson Jean, Myles James and Meirra Ann Johnson. Children of Angela Bolin: Arianna Dawn Jeppson-Bolin, Raylan Curtus and Natalya Grace Bolin. Child of Jack Jeppson: Chaya Lynn Jeppson.
Many family and friends here and abroad will miss him, and his legacy lives on in this community and in the hearts of all who knew him.
