A Celebration of Life for 71-year old Jan (Norman) Johnson will be held at a later date in Whitney, NE, where her ashes will be interred with her parents and siblings.
Jan Laureen Norman was born on July 28, 1952, in Chadron, NE, and took her final breath on January 3, 2024 at the Central Wyoming Hospice and Transitions Center in Casper, Wyo., after a long illness
The oldest daughter of World War II veteran Lavern Norman and war widow Betty Barth Richardson, Jan graduated from Chadron High School in 1970 and from Chadron State College in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology.
As a college student, Jan participated in one of the very first paleontological digs at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD.
After college, she took a job with AMAX Coal Company in Gillette, Wyo., where she met and married Tom Johnson, then raised two children as a housewife and church volunteer.
The Iron Woman 2.0, Jan lived with Type 1 Diabetes for 64 years and Multiple Sclerosis for 40 years. She never stopped praying for her healing.
Jan was famous for her distinct laugh, her passion and commitment to her faith, her love of shopping, her boldness, her indomitable will to live despite incurable and crippling disease, her enjoyment of good stories in books and movies, her devotion to her husband, her not-so-secret movie star crush on Will Smith, and her collection of very large and colorful jewelry.
She was preceded in death by her parents Lavern and Betty Norman, an infant sister, and her brother Don Richardson.
She is survived by her husband Tom Johnson of Crawford, NE; her children Jed Johnson of Gillette and Amber Johnson of Helena, MT; and her sisters Pattie Norman of Crawford and Kay Watson of Minot, ND.