Annie Rose Johns

Annie Rose John, 70, passed away in the early morning of Friday, February 8, 2013, at a Tacoma, Washington, hospital. Annie was born on September 11, 1942, at Franks Landing on the Nisqually River. She was a Nisqually and Puyallup Indian. Her early life was lived in the Nisqually River valley and her later adult life spent in Tacoma on or near the Puyallup Indian Reservation. Annie was the daughter of Rose (Frederick) and Herman Klaber John, Sr. Her father Herman "Buck" John entered the U.S. Army and World War II in October 1943 and was killed in action (KIA) during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in January 1945. Her mother Rose (Frederick Miles) John died as result of injuries in an auto accident in Tacoma on February 13, 1952 - leaving Annie an orphan at age 9. Before and during the War, Annie lived with her parents and older siblings Melvin Iyall, Mary Miles, Herman John, Jr., and Louise John at Franks Landing, where a younger sister Sandra Sally John was also born. After her father's war death, the family moved to the Salishan Housing Project off Portland Avenue in Tacoma, where another brother Frank (Moxlie) Griese was born. After her mother's death, Annie and siblings Herman (Babe), Jr., Louise, and Sandra were taken into the households of her grandmother Angeline (Angie) Frank and aunt Maiselle Bridges at Franks Landing. There they attended the Nisqually Grade School with cousins Suzette, Valerie and Alison Bridges, daughters of Al and Maiselle Bridges. Annie and sisters Louise and Sandra returned as adults to Tacoma - where siblings Mary Miles Frank and Melvin Iyall had remained - to raise their families. Annie was mother to a daughter Suzanne Marie and a son William. In her younger years, Annie was a fan of baseball and basketball "town team" sports of Western Washington tribes. Through the years, she was one of the constant "cooks and helpers in the kitchen" on call to sustain ceremonial and special event lives of Indian communities, schools and elders programs at Puyallup, Nisqually and The Landing. "She was a very good cook! She could really cook the best 'fritters!'" Her life was largely centered on Portland and Pacific Avenues in Tacoma. Over the past two decades, Annie was afflicted by cerebral tumors that tolled both upon her vision and mobility. Yet, as earlier, Annie continued to give a "lotta loving and a lotta caring" for her family, street companions and "especially to and in behalf of the homeless." She gave help and care - often at her own expense.