When Erma Ann Simkins was born on 23 August 1904, in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States, her father, Robert Wiley Simkins, was 32 and her mother, Annie Lofgreen, was 26. She married John Ellis Johnson on 21 August 1923, in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons. She lived in Lehi, Maricopa, Arizona, United States in 1920. She died on 30 May 1970, in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States, at the age of 65, and was buried in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona, United States.