Mom was 15 when my Grandmother and Granddaddy decided to move from Texas to California. The whole family (six of them!) piled into one car for the long trip. They originally took up residence in Stockton, then moved to Lawndale and finally settled in Hawthorne.

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~ How Mom Met Dad ~

Mom and some friends went to a dance one night and as she walked in she spotted a very handsome man and told her friends, "I'm going to marry that man." Five days later – August 26, 1950 – they eloped to Yuma, Arizona to get married. Mom was 18, dad was 20. The marriage lasted 35 years, ending when dad died from esophagus cancer in 1985.

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Mom & Dad's song was Harbor Lights. They were both excellent dancers and I loved to watch them dance.

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Mom loved Hank Williams, Charley Pride, Mickey Gilley, Box Car Willie, Marty Robbins and so many more country artists, as well as The Ink Spots, Duane Eddy, The Platters and Teresa Brewer. Growing up, there was always music playing in the house – everything from Glenn Miller to Elvis. (In the early '60s she thought Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits was really cute... so did I, he was my favorite.)

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Mom was survived at the time of her death by her second husband, Roy Robinson; two children – Kathy (Mike) and Steve; and three grandchildren – Jeffrey, Nicole & Matthew. Since then, she's become a great-grandma with the birth of Nicole's daughter, Caelyn, and has a daughter-in-law, Karina, and two more grandchildren (Karina's kids), Leslie & Steven.

My dad, Glenn Johnson, and two children, Gary William and Gregory Eldon, preceded her in death.

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