John Worthington

While I knew Toodie in high school, I got to know her a lot better as we were finishing up at San Jose State. We both had night classes and would occasionally car-pool and sometimes stop after class at a rather sleezy but affordable night spot for an adult beverage before heading home. We had some great conversations and solved a lot of the worlds problems during those evening sessions. I lost track of her after SJSU but was delightfully surprised to run into her at the Officer's Club at Clark Air Base in the Phillipines while I was on temporary duty from Thailand. She was teaching there at the American school and we had a chance, though only briefly, to catch up. I enjoyed our friendship and was greatly saddened to learn of her passing. I'm just sorry I didn't keep in touch with her over the years.

Janet Pemberton Farrington

ETHEL ELLEN ALBERTSON (Johns) AKA TOODIE

Date of birth: 30 December 1940.
Date of death: 30 July 1990 of colon cancer after a previous battle with breast cancer.

Toodie (Ellen) graduated from San Jose State in 1964 and was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. She obtained her Master’s Degree from Boston University European Extention System in counseling and guidance.

She began her career in education at Monterey (CA), High School. In 1968, she was employed by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to teach in its overseas school system (USDESA) on the island of Okinawa, Japan. The following year, she relocated to another American High School located between Strasbourg, France and Heidelberg, West Germany. The following year she returned to Palo Alto to work for Camp Fire Girls as the regional director for the southwestern states.

In 1973, she returned to Europe and was married, in Basil, Switzerland, to Carter Johns, also a DoD USDESA teacher. They lived in Vicenza, Italy, working at the USDESEA high school. She also taught at the local US Army post with the PREP program teaching military personnel who wanted to obtain their GED. She later became director of this program for the southern European region (SEATO).

In 1977, she gave birth to her only child, Alessia Johns PHD. and a pediatric psychologist in Los Angeles.

Two years later the family moved to Santa Fe, NM, where Ellen (Toodie) became employed in the Personnel Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratories.

In 1982, the family moved to Rota, Spain, where she was a counselor at David Glassgow Farragut Schools on the US Naval Base working with high school students, and, later exclusively with elementary pupils.

After her death, she was honored with four memorial services held in Rota, Vicenza, Los Gatos, and Santa Fe.

I will miss her forever.

Janet Pemberton Farrington using information provided by Carter Johns.