Married 59½ years

Nelda and Barney Johnson

2002 Tournament of Roses Winners

Carole, after his younger sister passed away. And in 1966, they took in and later adopted Barney's 9 year-old nephew Mitchell, after another of his younger sisters passed away.

Nelda and Barney live with their daughter Sheila and son in-law Jack in Towne Lake Hills West. They have nine grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

Congratulations and may you have many more happy years together.

Above — Barney and Nelda in 1954 at Frank Sennes Moulin Rouge in Hollywood, California. Barney won the trip to Hollywood on a television show.

On July 4, 2002, Nelda and Barney Johnson will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. The couple met in 1942 in Ozark, Alabama. Barney and Nelda's brother in-law were in the army together during WWII. The two men served at Fort Benning in Georgia and then Camp Blanding in Florida. After the two men were separated, Nelda's brother in-law paid a visit to Barney in Ozark, Alabama and brought along his wife and his wife's sister, Nelda. Nelda and Barney met, dated, fell in love and got married.

When asked how old they were when they got married, Nelda quickly replied with a grin, "Barney was 22 years old and he was much older than I was." Barney said "she did ok this first 60 years, I'm going to give her another 60 and see how she does."

Nelda and Barney moved to Towne Lake from Montgomery, Alabama after Barney took ill in September of 2000. Barney is doing much better and gets around quite a bit better now. He has regular meeting times with friends from Woodstock First Baptist Church and even works part time as a file clerk at the church. Everyone in the neighborhood knows him from walking around with his good friend Bubba. Bubba is the family's Basset Hound. Barney and Bubba are so well known that several of the kids at Halloween asked "is this Bubba's house?"

Nelda and Barney have one daughter, Sheila. However, in 1963 they took in and later adopted Barney's 3 year-old niece

Above — Barney and Nelda at home. Roses provided courtesy of Brenda's House of Flowers.

Tournament of Roses
Honorable Mentions

Congratulations to our honorable mentions on their many wonderful years of marriage!

Gloria and Rallen Franklin
Married on February 23, 1946

Rosemay and Harold Pusey
Married on June 21, 1947