Albion Interactive History / People
Johns, Ethel Calkins McDonald, 1872
Died May 11, 1961
Ethel was born May 31, 1872, in Butler, Indiana, to Mr. and Mrs. Marcus M. Calkins. She and her parents moved to Albion before 1900. Ethel attended Albion College, graduating from the music department in 1893. She then taught music at the College for six years.
Ethel’s husband, Roy George McDonald, died unexpectedly in 1912 while working as a lawyer in Chicago. Ethel returned to Albion and married Dr. Alfred Raymond Johns in March of 1919. He was the Albion Methodist minister at the time. She and her husband remained in Albion until 1920, when they moved to Muskegon.
The Calkins family home at East Porter and South Berrien Streets eventually became a parsonage for the Methodist Church.
Ethel died at the home of a nephew in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1961.
Sources: Albion Recorder, February 8, 1912,and May 12, 1961;Journal of Albion, May 20, 1961
From: Albion AAUW. Some Notable Women of the Albion Area. Albion, Michigan: American Association of University Women. 1998.