Gerald "Jerry" Johnson

Longtime area cattleman Gerald (Jerry) Walter Johnson passed away peacefully on May 7, 2018 at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane due to heart failure.  He was 80 years old.

Born August 19, 1937 to Walter and Mildred (Larsen) Johnson of Spokane, Jerry spent the bulk of his life concerning himself with Horses, Cattle and Trucks, “in that order” as he’d commonly say.

Jerry and his brother George were raised on the family farm in Moscow. After graduating from Moscow High School in 1955, Jerry attended the University of Idaho for one year, and then served in the Navy in occupied Japan. Jerry then set about a career that placed him in nearly every element of the livestock industry over the course of his life.

In 1961 he married Priscilla Perkins of Princeton, Idaho. They moved to Moses Lake where Priscilla was a High School English teacher and Jerry drove cattle trucks. He later managed a feedlot in Quincy, before becoming a cattle buyer for the Cudahy Corporation. His natural inclination for the work led him to become Cudahy’s youngest Head Buyer.

After Cudahy, Jerry became an independent buyer, traveling throughout the western United States and Canada to buy cattle for feedlots and meat packing plants. He auctioneered at sale yards throughout the Northwest and owned a livestock trucking company. Johnson went on to become an owner of Stockland Livestock in the 1990’s – the same company that gave him his first job moving cattle in the 1960’s.

Jerry and Priscilla had three children, Lloyd, Cliff and Jennifer. In 1977 they settled onto the family farm in Moscow, and raised a third generation of Johnsons on this farm.

After a divorce, Jerry spent several years with Alta Grant of Boise.
Jerry was proud of his children and enjoyed spending time with them and his grandchildren. He continued to buy cattle until his illness in February of this year.

Jerry is survived by his three children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He is preceded in death by Alta Grant, and his brother, George.
The family wishes to thank the outstanding medical and nursing staff of St Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Tri-State Memorial Hospital in Clarkston, and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane who all made Jerry’s final 90 days more tolerable.

Services will be held on Thursday, May 17 at 10:30 a.m. at Short’s Funeral Chapel in Moscow.  Internment at the Moscow Cemetery and a reception at the University Inn will follow.  In lieu of flowers donations in memoriam to dad can be made to the FFA Foundation at ffa.givingfuel.com/ffadonate.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Short’s Funeral Chapel of Moscow and condolences may be left at www.shortsfuneralchapel.com

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