Mardella Cora Johnson Bergquist
July 30, 1932 – January 4, 2026
Mardella Cora Johnson Bergquist passed away on the morning of January 4, 2026, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mardella was born 93 years ago to Jacob and Wilma (Doud) Johnson in Slayton, Minnesota. Mardella is survived by her brother; Louis and sister-in-law, Donna; and four of her five children, Michael, Bruce, Milton, and Brenda. She has eight living grandchildren: Lindsey, Alesha, Cora-lin, Kristine, Jess, Matt, Kaitlin and Jamison; and 11 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; Jacob (Jay) and Wilma; siblings, Ernest, Corrine (sister-in-law), Sylvia, Dean (brother-in-law); husband, Charlie; son, Rodney; and grandson, Zachary.
Mardella worked many jobs throughout her life, primarily with data processing and computers. She was on the team of one of the first ballistic missile contractors while working at Ramo-Wooldridge (a predecessor to Northrop Grumman) in Golden, CO, as a keypunch operator in the 1960s. She also worked in the computer departments at North Dakota State School of Science (NDSSS, now NDSCS) in Wahpeton, ND; St. Francis Hospital in Breckenridge, MN, and The Daily News, in Wahpeton, ND. She got her CNA license after she moved to Colorado Springs in 1990, where she retired and spent her last few years taking care of her husband and grandchildren.
Mardella loved her family, friends, music and Jesus. She positively touched the hearts and lives of all those she came in contact with and brightened the lives of anyone lucky enough to meet her. After her husband passed in 2018 and the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, her favorite things to do were to go to the YMCA to work the rowing machine (she was freakishly strong) and go out to eat at her favorite bar and grills to drink ginger ale, eat guacamole, soup, desserts and “talk sh!t.”
A funeral or memorial service will be held on or near her birthday, July 30, 2026, in Colorado Springs. More to come on that. As Mardella would say, we will “See you later, Alligator!”