John Louis Johnson Jr. passed away May 9th, 2015 at the age of 43 years old. John was born on March 17, 1972 in Los Angles California. His parents; Mother, Joann Sharp who is deceased in 2005, and survived by his father, John "Louis" Johnson Sr. and his sister, Tanya Collins.

John grew up in Los Angeles. He used to love to go to game arcade with his uncle when he was in elementary school. When John was in middle school and high school, he was happiest when playing football and baseball. His nickname in Los Angeles High School was "Smiley". After High school at the age of 18 in 1990, he joined the U. S. Marine Corps. And was stationed in Okinawa and then returned to Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, CA. While at MCAS El Toro, he completed 4-years of active duty service and 4-years of active reserve for a total of 8-years of duty. He was awarded The National Defense Service Medal, Navy Unit Commendation, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Rifle Sharpshooter badge, Pistol Sharpshooter badge and A Letter of Appreciation.

This is how John met Naoko. Naoko was a Language School student in Santa Barbara in 2000-2001. Naoko was visiting Los Angeles to sightseen with a good friend from Language School in Spring, 2001. They had fun in Santa Monica, but her friend abruptly left her and Naoko was stranded. The friend instructed Naoko to get on a bus to go back to Union Station in LA for the train back to Santa Barbara. Naoko was afraid, not knowing the language or anyone. As it turned out, John got on the same bus and sat a few rows of seats behind Naoko. He was helping an old lady with groceries, and Naoko thought how nice he was. He was also very tall and good looking. She thought he looked like a model. Naoko was worried about where she should get off the bus. He overheard her talking and he was going to get off the bus and bent down and gave her his business card (good sales technique). He asked her if she would write Japanese in E-mail so he could learn to read and write Japanese and in return he would respond in English (so she could learn English better). He got off the bus and she somehow made it to the L.A. train station and found a train back to Santa Barbara.

Naoko used the dictionary to write an E-mail to John and it took her a very long time. John responded with terms that she could not understand the meaning of "24/7" or "hang-out". She looked up the terms in the dictionary. But they weren't in there! She took it to school teacher for explanation and they asked her "who did she meet?" After she finished the language school, Naoko's brother and friend came over from Japan, and she invited John to join them and spend some time with them in LA. They had a lot of fun, they played pool, got to know each other and then a week after, she went back home to Japan. They keep in contact long distance by telephone phone, e-mail and Fax. Naoko decided she wanted to return to America and attend Dental Technology class in LACC in 2003. They started dating regularly for a year and then married. They had their beautiful daughter Sakura in 2005 and a year later, they had a son named Mitsuyoshi.

John eventually moved his family, wife, Naoko, daughter, Sakura and son, Mitsuyoshi to Orange County, California in 2006. John found work with SK &A an IMS Health Company working with Healthcare Marketing Leads and Medical Marketing Resources. He enjoyed working for Dave Escolante, his boss Barry Ward and co-workers; Daniel Franz, Ted Zogob, Conrad Wyszomirski, Vikas Chagantipaati, Christine Kafeh, and Lisa Weaver and others. He worked hard and enjoyed being in sales. He was with the company for 9-years and Naoko and the children want to thank everyone at SK & A IMS Health Company for helping them by donating generously, during this difficult time. And also they want to thank Dave Escalante's wife, Kristen Escalante with Heartworks OC, Inc., former co-worker, Lori Connell-Snyder and Nancy Toscano- Cicone for all your support.

Recently John joined the American Legion Chapter Post #222. He expressed his love of helping others, working on the maintenance of the Post Building and attending meetings, dinner socials and other events. Naoko and the children would like to thank Dave and Diane Connell, Richard Moore and Norm Abbod for embracing John into this worthy group. Also a very special thank you to the American Legion and the Ladies Auxiliary for the much needed support and generous donation.

John was a very loving young man. He loved his family, friends and country. He will be missed by all who knew him.