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- Owned clothing factory "Fern Violette of California"
Fern (Johnson) Violette died Wednesday morning March 10, 2010, in Butte.
She was born on a farm Sept. 27, 1920, in Augusta, that her father homesteaded in 1884. She was fourth of six children born to Charles Johnson and Carrie Frank. During the Depression, Fern moved to Fort Peck for work. There she met Ray Hagen and was married for a short time when he was later killed in an accident on the Fort Peck Dam. She moved to Anaconda where she met Ed Violette and married him in 1939, where they had one daughter.
During World War II they moved to southern California where Fern and Ed worked at Douglas Aircraft. After the war she worked in a clothing factory.
After a few years she realized she had the talent and the vision to open her own factory and manufactured high end women's clothing under her label "Fern Violette of California." Her designs were worn by many celebrities including Jackie Kennedy, Dinah Shore and Della Reese. She had boutiques in many couture department stores like Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bullocks Wilshire.
After a long and successful career in fashion she and Ed moved to the Deer Lodge Valley, where they built a home in Garrison. They lived there happily for 28 years.
They moved to Butte to the Waterford Cottages in 2004, where Ed died May 5, 2007, after 67 years of marriage.
Fern is survived by her sisters, Esther (Miller) Popovich of Butte and Ruth Gutsch of Ocala, Fla.; sisters-in-law, Anette Dwyer of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Ruth Kiefer of Butte; daughter, Elise Tower of Huntington Beach, Calif.; grandson, Steve Tower of Kailua, Hawaii, and his children, Cameron and Ashley; grandson, Chris Tower (Jill) of Irvine, Calif., and their sons, Shane and James; many nieces and nephews and many dear friends.
Fern will always be remembered as a gracious, beautiful woman, inside and out.
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1920 - 2010 (89 years)
