Larry and Joanne Johnson grew to call Morris home

Dr. Larry Johnson was completing his microbiology major at the University of Missouri when he got a letter that he’d been drafted.

His draft number was eight.

“There was no question that I was going to get drafted,” Johnson said. “So I enlisted with the opportunity to, one, finish my college degree in microbiology and, two, get an opportunity to go to officer candidate school.”

Larry and his wife, Joanne, already were married at that point. He was a bit older than the people he met at basic training in New Jersey. Most of them were newly 18, and most were from upstate New York.

Until that point, Larry had never left Missouri.

“I was fortunate to graduate high in my class, and I was offered the opportunity to transfer out of infantry,” he said. “Because of my medical background, I chose the Medical Service Corps.”

The thought going in, Larry said, was that he’d been in Texas for about a year. Everyone around him said they weren’t taking Medical Service Corps officers to Vietnam anymore, and he’d be safe.

A common thought among veterans is that if the Army says they’re safe from deployment, they should start packing.

“I was pregnant,” Joanne said. “[Our son] Mark was 6 weeks old when Larry got his orders.”

Joanne said they didn’t allow wives to stay on base back then, so she had to move out with a newborn baby while Larry left for Vietnam. Larry didn’t see Mark again until he was 6 months old.

He deployed just north of the demilitarized zone, spending time in an infantry battalion.

Larry said he recalls a particular helicopter pilot who would regularly land in a space between a cliff-face and a mountain that was barely big enough for the helicopter. No matter how often he had to take the ride, he couldn’t get used to it.

He left the service after that, already having decided to attend veterinary school. Larry already had research experience from his undergraduate days in college, and he saw it as a line of work he would enjoy.

“I knew medicine was what I wanted to do, and I decided that I wasn’t too nuts about hearing people complain about their toenails, their this and their thats,” Larry said. “I decided working on animals and having their owners as clients was maybe a bit better.”

It wasn’t until he started searching for a job that he came to live in Morris. His search first took him to Macomb.

“We agonized going to Macomb because it was so far away from home,” Larry said. “We decided to look for jobs up here, further north, and it was even worse because we were that much further.”

Their families were worried about them moving so close to Chicago, but Larry said what they didn’t know was that he’d interviewed for jobs in Texas and a few other places that were even further away.

Morris ended up being a home they’d give back to for the rest of their lives.

“I don’t know what festival they were having,” Joanne said.

She recalled that it was late May when they were traveling for Larry’s job interview.

Larry said they drove through Iowa and took Interstate 80. It had been raining and miserable until they turned off on exit 112 into Morris.

His first stop, however, was the wrong stop. GPS wasn’t invented yet, so Larry and Joanne pulled into a place with the correct name but it didn’t match the building description.

To their relief, they went to the wrong Dr. Robert Gay’s office. Larry was expecting a new facility, and the one they ended up at was older. From there, the receptionist directed them to a different facility that took them through downtown on Liberty Street.

“I have no idea why, and you might not remember Jerry and Delight Belt, but they had a little band while she sang and he played the trumpet,” Larry said. “They were playing on the side of the street, and the flags were out. We came, and they’re having a party. We’re staying.”

And stay they did. Larry bought into Dr. Gay’s Pine Bluff Animal Hospital with Dr. Louis Cronin and others and practiced there for 39 years. In that time, it went from two hospitals to four. Larry was part owner in the Dwight, Pine Bluff, Lakewood and Skinner Animal Hospitals for that entire time.

Larry left the practice and sold his percentages simultaneously with Cronin.

“We worked another year then retired, and Dr. Cronin developed cancer,” Larry said. “His retirement lasted a few months before he passed away. It was very, very sad because he just enjoyed life. There’s a lot of traveling and national parks he wanted to see.”

Since Larry and Joanne’s retirement, they’ve become fixtures in Morris’ volunteer scene. Joanne is a retired tailor and still sews and quilts.

“Giving back is fun,” Joanne said. “It’s not always just work, but there’s a lot of work. It’s rewarding to meet other people and enjoy what you’re doing.”

Joanne said they’ve volunteered in some strange places, such as handling desk work during the 2021 battery fire to keep the TV cameras out or learning traffic control.

Larry laughed, remembering the time Joanne had to light a flare.

“I’m not a very loud person, but I can use a whistle,” Joanne said. “We’ve used the traffic control skills a lot, like for the Lions Club and helping with 5K runs around town. They need people standing at the corners to direct traffic.”

Larry and Joanne are a team, making them a stronger couple because of how much they can do together.

They’re both involved in the Lions Club together, where they participate in activities such as promoting literacy or helping to organize the annual car show. Although Joanne isn’t involved in the military groups, she still helps where she can.

Larry is heavily involved in the American Legion and the Morris Color Guard. Joanne regularly gets texts from organizations such as Heroes and Helpers asking for help. Recently, she donated a quilt for its October drawdown.

Throughout their many years, Larry and Joanne have remained a team.