Irma Elizabeth “Beth” Johnson, a longtime resident of Vicksburg, passed away Sunday, May 30, 2010, at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital, at the age of 80. A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bethlehem United Methodist Cemetery near Winona. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. Saturday until the service at the cemetery pavilion.

A native of Doddsville, Miss Johnson was the fourth of five children born May 23, 1930, to Absalom Calvin and Irma Leigh Bunch Johnson. She grew up in Doddsville, was a 1948 graduate of Ruleville High School, a 1953 graduate of Delta State Teachers College with a Bachelor of Science degree and became a certified medical technologist in June 1954. She worked for many years at Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg until her retirement in January of 1986. Miss Johnson was a longtime resident of Vicksburg prior to moving to an assisted living facility in Ridgeland. She was a member of First Untied Methodist Church in Vicksburg.

She was preceded in death by her parents and three siblings.

She is survived by a sister, Jo Anne Johnson Marquis of Cleveland, Miss.; and six nieces and five nephews who knew her as “Aunt B.” She also is survived by a special niece who looked after her affairs, Beth McWilliams and her husband, Tim, of Madison, Miss.

Pallbearers will be Robert Johnson, Guy Johnson, David Johnson, William Moore, William Chesteen and John Grant.

She was preceded in death by her brothers, Lt. William Calvin “Buddy” Johnson and Eugene Franklin Johnson; and a sister, Kathryne Davenport Johnson Neill.

Memorials may be made to Gibson Memorial United Methodist Church in Vicksburg or Bethlehem United Methodist Church cemetery fund in Winona.

An online guestbook may be signed here