Helen Merle Johnson; Ventura Secretary

Helen Merle Johnson, a retired secretary, died Sunday at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura. She was 81.

She and a twin sister, Viva, were born May 25, 1918, in Melbourne, Ark. Two years later, the family moved to Oklahoma where Johnson attended school and grew up.

Johnson furthered her education at the University of Central Oklahoma.

In the mid-1940s, she and her sister moved to Washington, D.C., where their eldest brother, Glen, was a U.S. congressman. Johnson worked in the nation’s capital for nine years as a secretary to the director of the Veterans Administration’s Interior Design Department.

In 1955, Johnson moved to Ventura and began working for the Department of the Navy. She worked in Port Hueneme and later moved to Point Mugu, where she served as secretary to the director of the patent office. She retired in 1973.

Her sister, Viva Verle of Ventura, said that Johnson liked to read, watch movies on TV and listen to music, and she often traveled to Oklahoma to visit relatives.

In addition to her sister, she is survived by brothers Glen and Maurice of Oklahoma and Dorman of Ventura and several nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura with Father George Reynolds officiating. Burial will follow at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura.