When Merle Reynold Johnson was born on 12 September 1930, in Osceola, Polk, Nebraska, United States, his father, Theodore Paul Johnson, was 29 and his mother, Bernice Lucille Peterson, was 23. He married Darlene Phyllis Gustafson on 3 September 1949. He lived in Osceola Township, Polk, Nebraska, United States in 1940. He died on 25 September 2003, in Osceola, Polk, Nebraska, United States, at the age of 73, and was buried in Osceola, Polk, Nebraska, United States.