Linda Johnson

When I graduated from RHS I went straight into nurses training at Akron City Hospital with Claudia Argante. Three years later [1062] we were out on our own as RN's. I also got married in 1962 to a Stow guy. I went to work in Robinson Memorial Hospital's children ward but after a year went back to Akron City Hospital. I worked there off and on till early 1985. I did everything, floor nursing, maternity, even 13 years in Emergency. At that time I went to work at the Summit County Jail as the Health Service Administrator. I ran the department which took care of the inmate medical needs. I really enjoyed that but as things happen it was farmed out to a contract service. Every two years it went up for bid and in 1990 a company came in and said they could do it cheaper, so I went back to Akron City Hospital. This time I was a nurse working in Occupational Health. Now this is the job for me. I worked there until April 2001. At that time they said my job was eliminated so I was without a job. My husband and I decided we would travel some so we came out to AZ and stayed for three months. While we were here we decided we could live here. My husband has been retired since he was 50 but I wanted to keep working until I was 65. When we went back to Ohio I got a job working for a chemical company as their occupational health nurse. My husband felt we needed to both quit work so we bought a house in AZ and at 62 I finally quit. Well as it would go I am back to working occassionaly. I really like working just a little. We live in the Tonto National Forest at about 6100 feet in the mountains. We have four seasons but not any one is very bad, especially winter. We get snow but it doesn't last very long and it is not like the snows in Ohio. The air is clean and temps never get like down in Phoenix. We have a small motor home and like to camp and ATV. Out here you can drive ATV's on any road, even main hughway. They license them as motorcycles. We have 2 children, both girls and three wonderful grandchildren. I have a stepdaughter so I have 2 more grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.