Virginia Johnson Bone

Virginia Johnson Bone, 102, of Rock Island, Illinois, died Sunday, April 23, 2023, in Friendship Manor, Rock Island.

Graveside services are 11 a.m. Thursday at Rose Lawn Memorial Estate, Moline.  Memorials may be made to Palm Cottage Naples Historical Society or Culver Academies, 1300 Academy Road, Culver IN 46511.Trimble Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. A memorial service at Friendship Manor will be held at a later date.

Pearl “Virginia” Leason Johnson Bone was born June 18, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan, to Walter A. and Lena B. (Stewart) Leason.  Her father died of pneumonia when she was just 10 months old, so she and her mother returned to Ashland, Ohio, to live with her grandmother, where she grew up.  She graduated from Ashland High School and attended Ashland College. She met the love of her life, Charles H. Johnson of East Moline, in the office where they both worked. They married January 31, 1942, in the Old Historic Stone Church on the Public Square in Cleveland, Ohio.

Charles was drafted in April that year and became a Captain in the Corps of Engineers, serving as post engineer in Trinidad, French Guiana, and Jamaica for four years. Virginia joined him in Jamaica for a brief time at the start of his service.

Upon his discharge, they returned to East Moline to establish their home and take over his father’s business of Johnson Sheet Metal Works.  They had two children, Charles “Douglas” Johnson and Carolyn Patrice Johnson. Several years after Charles’ death, she married Arthur Bone, whom she had known in her youth.

Virginia was a homemaker who enjoyed her children and took part as a leader for Cub Scouts, 4-H. and Sunday school, bible school, and Hampton School PTA activities.  She was an active member of Chapter BL of P.E.O Sisterhood, Elizabeth Jane Brashear Chapter of King’s Daughters, Junior Women’s Club, First Presbyterian Church, and several social clubs.  She was an enthusiastic member of an amateur organ club, always enjoyed music, and came up with the idea to name the Left Bank Art League.

She traveled widely around the world and felt blessed to have had those experiences. She presented interesting programs to local groups, pulling props out of an antique trunk to illustrate her stories.

She will be remembered fondly for her slow and steady style, and being a pillar of strength. She was creative, never dressing, decorating, or entertaining “simply,” but always with an eye for making things special.

She shared special times with four grandchildren and was amazed to see seven great-grandchildren, and generously shared with all of them.  She survived a lot – including Covid-19 before the vaccine was available. She never knew it though because she had no symptoms.  She was always steady and ready to have a quip mixed with dignity and often some humor.

She retired to spending six months a year in Naples, Florida, where she easily made friends and especially enjoyed her music hobby of organ lessons.

She was preceded in death by her parents, aunts, uncles, her husbands, and beloved grandson Tony. Survivors include her son, C. Douglas (Diane) Johnson of Naples; her daughter, Carolyn (Dennis) Kois of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; grandson R. J. (Christine) Johnson and his children, Prideaux and Archer; Granddaughter, Erin Kraus and her daughter Halas; grandson, Christopher (Rebecca) Peters, and their children, Clayton Neuschwander, and Bode, Amelia and Morgan Peters; and foreign-exchange student daughter, Marie (George) Alleman and special pet visitor Leinie.

Virginia’s family invites friends to share stories and condolences at TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.