Edward L. Johns, Central City, Neb.
Former Emporia and Burlington resident Edward L. “Ed” Johns of Central City, Neb., died Wednesday, April 18, 2007, at Litzenberg Memorial County Hospital in Central City. He was 81.
The son of William Elasco and Emma Lolita Johnson Johns, he was born Nov. 21, 1925, in Catawissa, Mo. He grew up in Missouri and graduated from Herculaneum High School. He received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Emporia in Emporia, where he also lettered in track and football; he did his graduate work at Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia.
He was a veteran of World War II, serving from 1944 until 1946.
He married Alverta F. Hamman on Nov. 24, 1949, in Emporia. She survives.
Mr. Johns began his teaching and coaching career in Kansas at Logan schools, Turon schools and in the suburbs of Wichita in the Riverside and Goddard schools. In the early 1950’s, he also played semi-pro baseball with the Wichita Whitesall. In 1969, he and his family moved to Nebraska, where he taught at Nebraska Christian High School and was the school’s first football coach. They moved to North Platte in 1972, where he worked for the Job Service through North Platte Technical College. In 1978, they moved back to Kansas near Burlington, where he worked with livestock on his wife’s family’s farm for more than 20 years before returning to Central City in 1999.
He and his wife were members of the New Strawn Church, where Ed served as a deacon, taught an adult Sunday School class and served as their pulpit supply through the Village Missions Program. In Central City, he attended the Heartland Evangelical Free Church.
Mr. Johns is also survived by three daughters, Martha Parlane of Columbus, Neb., Laraine Standley of Lincoln. Neb., and Lydia Boehr of Omaha, Neb.; one brother, Elasco Denver Johns of St. Louis, Mo.; 12 grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
The memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Heartland Evangelical Free Church in Central City, Neb. Mr. Johns was cremated. Burial will be at a later date in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery.
Solt Funeral Home of Central City has the arrangements.
Messages to the family may be sent to www.soltfh.com.