Bill and Karen Johnson

Bill and Karen Johnson, lifelong western Iowa Farmers and coauthors of two nonfiction books on rural life, continue to experience the sunshine and clouds of life on the farm on which they've worked together since marrying in 1968, that Bill has lived on since his 1941 birth, and that has been in the Johnson family since 1887. Grandson Dakota Fox (b. 5-16-2002) and granddaughter Ellanor Johnson (b. 7-28-2008) are now the 6th generation to spend time on this family farm.

Parents of three children married and on their own, Bill and Karen currently raise 1250 acres of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and 65 beef cows. Here where Karen has kept daily journals of their 40 years of marriage and farming, they still both work many 10 to 14 hours days; and she adds, "We get more aches and pains than we used to, and we get tired a little sooner."

They took creative writing classes in the late 1980's and, in 1989, became charter members of an area writer's group, Writers Bloc.  The members then spurred them both to write more.

Many times the Iowa farm couple got up during the night to write, or wrote in their combine and tractors, on napkins at restaurants and notepads at meetings, or at their kitchen table—whenever and wherever a subject sprang from the subconscious and onto paper.

Such writings evolved into their insightful, entertaining, straight-from-the-heart true stories, poems, and journal excerpts that now make up their two books Once Upon A Farm: How To Look, Listen, Laugh, And Survive, volumes one (1993) and two (2005).

Featured in area to national media, such as IPTV's "Living in Iowa", WHO 1040 Radio, AgriTalk, Farm Journal and Successful Farming magazines, and various other publications over the years, Karen and Bill have shared their experiences in rural America with the public and particularly helped enlighten many non-farmers about where their food originates and who produces it. They have also given over 60 presentations across Iowa on rural nostalgia, farm life, farm safety, and/or writing and self-publishing to school students and various other groups from 6 to over 600. While speaking or signing books, the Johnsons have met thousands of people from across the USA and other countries and shared rural America's story. They continue to do so and add, "We thoroughly enjoy it."

Bill and Karen Johnson are current members of Iowa Corn, Soybean, and Cattle Associations; Iowa Quality Producers Alliance; Carstens 1880 Farmstead, Inc.; Southwest Iowa Egg LLC; Amaizing Energy LLC; and Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy LLC; and are active on area business boards and committees.

• 1994 Shelby County Beef Producers of the Year
• 1999 Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Agriculturalist Award
• 1999 Farm Journal Spokespersons of the Year: For Outstanding Communications  Efforts On Behalf Of American Agriculture