Rolling Meadows couple foster-parented 87 babies

For nearly 25 years, the Rolling Meadows home of Kenneth and Dolores Johnson was a safe haven for newborns and abused infants, unable to return to their own families.

From 1970 to the mid-1990s, the couple fostered 87 babies, while they raised their own five children.

"For nearly as long as I can remember, there were always cribs and babies," said their oldest daughter, Susan McFeggan of Carpentersville.

Mr. Johnson passed away June 5, four years after his wife. The 51-year resident of Rolling Meadows, was 81.

"(The infants) stayed as short as one day, to the longest one, Danielle, who stayed 2 years," McFeggan added.

Danielle was featured in a news story by broadcast journalist Carol Marin, who reported on hard-to-place adoptions. After the piece aired, Danielle was adopted, and the Johnsons had to part with her.

"The nice thing was that my parents met with the adoptive parents, to help make the transition easier for Danielle," McFeggan said.

The couple became interested in fostering children after learning about it from a fellow congregation member at St. John's Episcopal Church in Mount Prospect.

"My mother just had this thing for babies," McFeggan said. "She loved babies."

While much of the care fell to Mrs. Johnson, her husband relieved her at night, handling the evening feedings and getting up with them in the middle of the night.

Most of the infants came to them directly from the hospital, and often stayed until they were placed with adoptive families.

Some of them were infants of mothers who abused drugs, said their son, Keith, who lives in Olethe, Kansas. "Other babies were abused, and had to be removed from their families."

The Johnsons were licensed by the state, and worked through officials with the Children's Home & Aid Society of Illinois to take in foster children.

"They have changed the lives of countless numbers of children," said Betty Brisk, spokeswoman for Children's Home & Aid Society of Illinois. "It's very selfless work they do, opening their hearts and their homes to children."

The Johnsons moved to Rolling Meadows in 1957, to a California-styled ranch home on Bluebird Lane. Within six years, they moved to the north side of the city, to a bigger home to accommodate their growing family.

Mr. Johnson worked as a microbiologist in the medical research laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the family's early years in Rolling Meadows, he served as health inspector for the village, inspecting everything from restaurants to apartment complexes during evening visits.

In his spare time, Mr. Johnson volunteered with Boy Scout Troop 86, eventually serving as Scoutmaster. His sons, Keith and Guy, remember how he worked to make the troop more boy-driven, and they also remembered a special meal he prepared during winter campouts.

"He cooked rabbits he brought from the university," his son Keith, said. "The kids always looked forward to that campout."

Beside his son and daughter, Mr. Johnson is survived by his daughters, Dawn (Scott) Chisholm of Chicago and Sheri (Greg) Meehan of Carpentersville, and his son, Guy Johnson of Elk Grove Village, as well as 11 grandchildren, two granddaughters-in-law and one great-great granddaughter.

Services were held.