| Funeral home loses two familiar faces |
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| News | |||
| Written by Brian McCauley | |||
| Wednesday, 07 October 2009 07:00 | |||
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David and Karen Johnson of Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home are excited about their plans to move back home to Iowa to be closer to their family, but it’s the Paola family they’ll be leaving behind that makes the transition a difficult one. The Johnsons, who are natives of Stuart, Iowa, first came to Paola in 2003 to work alongside their son Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson at that time was director of Wilson & Son Funeral Home, which became Penwell-Gabel in 2007.  Shortly after the change, Mike and his wife Courtney moved back to Stuart, Iowa, to operate the Johnson Family Funeral Home. Now, David and Karen are following their son back home, where they’ll also be closer to their three granddaughters, ages 1, 3 and 6. Although David and Karen are looking forward to their homecoming, they also will miss the friendship formed between themselves and members of the Paola community, as well as Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home Director Chad Wilson and owners Ren and Theresa Newcomer. “This was a hard decision,” Karen Johnson said. “We couldn’t have been treated better here.” But in the end, the call of their family was too strong, and David and Karen spent their last day at Penwell-Gabel in Paola last week. Both said they will not soon forget the past six years. “We call Paola the little Norman Rockwell city,” Karen said. “We have made a lot of friends.”
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