Hazel Johnson, first female page at Capitol

Hazel Rolstad Johnson, who was the first female page in the Minnesota House of Representatives, died Feb. 5 at age 93.

Johnson, a longtime resident of Excelsior, was 26 when she accepted the first female page position at the Capitol in 1943 as the nominee of her legislator.

A gentle, quiet person who was barely 5 feet tall, Johnson worked for 46 years at the Capitol until she retired in 1989.

"What ever endeavor she put herself into -- and she put herself into a lot -- she put a lot of energy and dedication into that," said her son Kevin Johnson of Excelsior.

She worked her way from page to House desk clerk, a position that put her in charge of setting session calendars, hand-recording notes on legislative actions on all bills and handling messages between the House and Senate.

When she retired, Johnson was hailed as "one of those conscientious, always pleasant, valuable and indispensable people who make the Statehouse work" by former Minnesota House Speaker and then U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo.

In his sermon at her funeral, Pastor David Olson, of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Excelsior, who knew Johnson for 30 years, remembered her "fierce devotion and unwavering loyalty to the Vikings, the Gophers and the Republicans.

Johnson was born in 1917 in the rural western Minnesota town of Hazel Run, where her parents, Harvey and Clara Rolstad farmed. She graduated from nearby Clarkfield High School in 1935 and studied at the Minnesota School of Business.

She and her future husband, Arnold Johnson, a brick and stone mason, met on a blind date before World War II and conducted a long-distance romance while he served in the Air Force in the South Pacific. They were married on Nov. 11, 1945, and raised three children.

When not at the Capitol, Johnson volunteered at Mount Calvary and the American Lung Association.

She was an excellent cook and made a point of serving Norwegian specialties like lefse, krumkake and rosettes. She also was a master knitter and prodigious ironer. "She ironed everything," her son said. "There were people who brought her their linens because she ironed so well."

Services have been held.