Joseph Johnson, 87
ADAMS, Mass. â€' Joseph Johnson, 87, of 47 Mill St. died Tuesday morning, Oct. 14, of renal failure at North Adams Regional Hospital, where he was admitted Oct. 4.
Born in New Bedford on Aug. 20, 1921, son of Samuel and Alice Maitland Johnson, he attended schools there and graduated from New Bedford High School in 1939. His family moved to Adams in 1940.
A Navy veteran of World War II, he enlisted in October 1942 and served on the USS Buffalo as a gunner's mate, second class. He served in the North African campaign and the European theater, and was decorated for his service on convoy escorts on the Aruba-Cuaraco run, Murmansk-Russian run and in the Persian Gulf. He was honorably discharged on Dec. 7, 1945.
Mr. Johson was employed with the former Arnold Printworks of Adams as a machine operator in its bleach house, from which he retired. He had first worked as a route salesman for Adams Cleaners and, after the war, in General Electric's Naval Ordnance.
He was a communicant of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and a member of Adams Post VFW Burnette-Bednarz and Adams Post 160 American Legion. He was a charter member of the Maple Grove Civic Club and a member of the Hoosac Hose Company.
His wife, the former Mary Adamczyk, whom he married on Sept. 1, 1947, in St. Stanislaus' Church, died Dec. 14, 1986.
He leaves two daughters, Jay Johnson of Williamstown and Barbara St. Pierre, director of the Adams Council on Aging; a sister, Doris Hart, of Willimantic Conn.; five grandchildren, Jill, Michael and Lindsay St. Pierre, and Michael and Jim Polumbo, and two great-grandchildren, Brittany Lillie and Nicholas Lillie.
FUNERAL NOTICE â€' There will be a calling hour Monday, Oct. 20, from noon to 1 p.m. at McBride Funeral Home in Adams. An inurnment service for Mr. Johnson will follow in the family lot in Bellevue Cemetery, Adams.