After high school, I elected not to go to college – I just wanted to make money to buy clothes, a car, and more clothes. I could have worked for my dad in real estate, but I thought I could get a job paying more money. So I worked for the Air Force for 20 years and spent 11 of those in Protocol (did you see the Goldie Hawn movie? That was me, only I hope not as much of an air head!) I did get several promotions, but I got tired of having so many bosses (about 17 Generals and their wives) and so many long days and weekends entertaining visiting dignitaries. So, in 1989, I quit and came to work for Dad’s business, Kenneth Johnson Agency, although he was retired then, and my brother Phil now owns the company. We sell and lease commercial properties (no houses – yeah!) – so we don’t work much on the weekends. We have a web site: www.kja-commercial.com and if you want, you can review my professional bio on that site.
My parents are both still alive and live in Smithton (Dad is 85 and Mom is 81). How blessed I am to still have them here and relatively healthy. I meet them every Friday night for dinner. I am the only girl (second oldest) and have 5 brothers. All live in this area, except for Stan who lives in New York – a lawyer who also recently wrote 2 books – Once a Ranger and Lethal Agent.
I married Dennis “Butch” Sprous in 1968, had a daughter, Brenda, in 1972, divorced in 1979, and never remarried. Butch and I remained friends and he passed away in January of this year. Brenda (Kohlmeier) is a neo-natal nurse practitioner at Cardinal Glennon Hospital. She lives in Belleville and is in the process of a divorce. I have one adorable grandson – Cameron – who is 4 ½ years old and the light of my life.
I live in Swansea now, and my off-duty time is spent primarily watching Cameron while Brenda works those awful 12-14 hour long shifts. My other hobbies include gardening, reading, and doing civic and charitable work. I belong to the Swansea Rotary Club and am active in fundraising for multiple sclerosis (my brother Steve has this horrible disease).
And, of course, I really do enjoy working on the reunions and the emails to everyone. FYI: We originally had 236 classmates. Thirteen are now deceased, and of the remaining 223, I have email addresses for 93 (42%) and hope to have many more in the future. My real goal is to track down the 16 missing classmates.
And, yes I was a brunette in high school. When I decided to color the gray, I wanted to see if blondes really do have more fun. They don’t – at least not in my case.
