SWEDES: TheWayTheyWere
  • Home
    • The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil >
      • ​"First Swedish Agricultural Company" Lindsborg Founders, 1868 >
        • Swedish Pastor Olof Olsson Immigrating to Lindsborg 1869, June 27th Arrival >
          • Church and Lindsborg Founder Pastor Olsson, 1869 - 1876 >
            • ​"He Gave God Glory" The Story of Olof Olsson, ​1841 - 1900
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Church" 1869 >
        • Their "Augustana Lutheran Synod," 1860 - 1962 >
          • The Augustana Heritage Association, 2000 - 2016
        • Their "Augustana Women's Missionary Society," 1892
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Home" Since 1907
      • Their Lindsborg's "First" Swedish Smoky Valley Community Chronicle 1909 and Their "Second" 1919 >
        • "Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas," 1965 >
          • "The Smoky Valley in The After Years," 1969
      • Their 1920s Coronado Heights Photographs and their Smoky Valley Historical Association (SVHA)
      • Their 1936 1873 Swedish Homestead, "The Old Deere Farm," The Peter J. Larson Farm, etc. >
        • Their 1873 Swede House
        • A Smoky Valley Swedish Virtual Memorial - ​"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements" >
          • Recognizing & Thanking >
            • - Claude Koehn -- The Before and After
      • Their 1940 Deere Home >
        • Emil's and Nina's 1961 Thunderbird
      • 1943, After Lydia--The Building of the Lindsborg Hospital
    • Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on... >
      • "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
    • Their Bethany College 1899 Swedish Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition
    • Their Bethany College 1902 "Terrible Swedes," Coach Bennie Owen, Their 1903 "Rockar Stockar"
    • Their Bethany College 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion
    • Their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations: 15, 20, 25, 100 years >
      • Their Celebrating 15 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1896. The First Bethany Annual, 1895-96
      • Their Celebrating 20 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1901. The "Forget-Me-Not," 1902 >
        • The King of Sweden's Emissary, 1901
        • Yale University's Bethany Club
      • Their Celebrating 25 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1906, "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College"
      • Their Celebrating 100 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1981, "The Centennial of Bethany College"
    • Their "I WAS THERE" Coin ~ Bethany College Celebration, 1902
    • Their Bethany College's 1937 Introduction to New Sweden, founded in 1638 >
      • Deere's Introduction to New Sweden
    • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" >
      • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1953, "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas"
    • Their friend, Leon Lungstrom, and his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas"
  • Swedish Immigration Story, 1854
    • "The Story of the Old Spoon" by Ingrid Anderson Sohlberg & Daughter Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1937
    • Who They Left Behind
    • From Sweden with Love Collections >
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Portraits, 1867 >
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Glass
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Letters
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Royal Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Post Cards (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Magazines, (c1940s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Books, 1819/1886 to 1899
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Albums, late 19th early 20th centuries
      • The Swedish Deere Coins -- 1801-1929
    • Lydia Sohlberg Deere's 1927 "Lindsborg Swedish Club's" Handwork >
      • Lydia's Signatured Black Book of Her Handwritten Sewing Instructions >
        • Nina Sohlberg's Child's Sewing "Little Dots" PICTURE BOOK >
          • The Lindsborg Swedish Club's "Allers Monster-Tidnings" magazine, 1940
  • Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    • Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925 >
      • The Hats
      • The Smoky River
      • The Smoky Hill Bluffs
      • Coronado Heights -- One Winter's Day
      • In and Around Lindsborg
      • Sohlberg House with Parents >
        • Our Sohlberg Home and Neighbor Alma Luise Olson
      • Sohlberg House with Emil 1916 to 1920 >
        • Lydia's Travels with Deere 1916 - 1930s >
          • Lydia's California Photographs for Painting
          • Lydia's Palm Springs Pictorial Magazine, 1938-1939
          • Lydia's California Pressed Wild Flowers, c1930
      • "LYDIA'S WORLD" Photography Exhibitions in Lindsborg, 2005 - 2011
    • Lydia's Art, 1919-1938 >
      • Lydia's Art: The Kansas Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The California Collection >
        • The Sketches
    • Lydia's Art Professor Sven Birger Sandzén, 1871-1954 >
      • Lydia's Assignments for Professor Sandzén >
        • Students of Sandzén 2019 Exhibition
        • Bethany Home ~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through His Students' Paintings
    • Lydia's Art Professor Birger Sandzén's "Art Exhibitions" ... 1893-1940 >
      • Lydia's Art Professor Sandzén's Exhibition at the Babcock Gallery in New York, 1922
    • Lydia's Sandzén's Body of Work Reviewed by N.Y.C, 1984 "American Impressionism," author William H. Gerdts
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Charles Edward Hallberg, 1855-1940
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Oscar Brousse Jacobson, 1882-1966
    • Lydia’s Sohlberg Family Connection to Sandzén, 1880-1894-1993
  • Scientist Emil O. Deere
    • Deere's & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Bethany College "Campus from Above"
      • Bethany College "The Gateway" 1917 and "Bethany Campus Association" 1912
      • Bethany College "College Street," today's "North First Street"
      • Bethany College "Campus Life"
      • "Bethany College's Earliest Buildings" >
        • Bethany College "​Ladies Dormitory" / "Lane Hart Hall" 1883 - 1899 - 1983
        • Bethany College "Old Main" 1887-1968 >
          • Lydia's and Emil's Old Main Apartments, 1920 to 1940
          • Deere's Bethany College Classes in Old Main
        • Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
        • Bethany College "Swedish Pavilion" 1904
        • Bethany College "​Carnegie Library" / "Bethany Library" 1908 - 1980
        • Bethany College "​Bethany Academy" 1882 -- Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings
    • Deere's 1959 Interview on Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson (On YouTube) >
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1857-1904 >
        • Swensson's "Bethany Lutheran Church" and the "Augustana Lutheran Synod"
        • Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings: "The Bethany Academy of 1882"
        • Swensson's Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah", 1882 on ... >
          • Thure Olof Jaderborg
        • Swensson's Swedish Artists of the 1890s
        • Swensson's "Bethany College Museum," 1882 - 1966
      • In Memorium**Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1904
    • Deere's Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1873-1943 >
      • In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
      • Rev. Dr. Pihlblad on Bethany College, 1904 - 1941
    • Deere's Swensson's "Bethany College Museum" 1882 - 1966 >
      • Bethany College Museum Collections' New Location,1966 >
        • Articles on the Bethany College Museum Collections Move of 1966
    • Deere's Bethany College Field Trips -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Deere's Swensson's Bethany College Museum Collections >
        • Cliff Dwellers' Pottery Collection
        • Fossils Collection, "The Find"
        • Taxidermy Collection
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on the "Bethany College Museum"
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on "Three Pioneer Scientists of Swedish Descent"
    • Deere's Smithsonian Institution's Souvenir, 1904
    • Deere's 1940 Presidential Address to the Kansas Academy of Science
    • Deere's 1955 Letter to President Eisenhower re Tuttle Creek
    • Deere's Service, 1901-1966 >
      • Deere's Education & Degrees
  • "The Other Swedes"
    • Honoring them and their works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \\\\/ >
      • Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg
      • Photographer B.G. Gröndal ~ Remembering him for visually documenting Lindsborg and Bethany College in their earliest days
      • Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her as "First Honored American Woman by Sweden" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg >
        • Remembering Miss Alma Luise Olson and her most extraordinary life at home and abroad by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
      • Artist Birger Sandzén ~ Remembering him for "sharing his art with the world," starting "first" at Lindsborg's Bethany College >
        • Dr. & Dr. Mrs. Charles Greenough III ~ Remembering them for their gift of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
      • Artist Lester Raymer ~ Remembering him as the renown virtuoso artist and "behind the scenes" community supporter
      • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn ​​~ Remembering him for saving Bethany College from going under!​ >
        • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn (1923-2017) ~ Remembering him handing me my Bethany College Diploma on Sunday, May 26,1968
      • Dr. ​Elmer Copley ~ Remembering Bethany College's Oratorio Society Conductor who carried on "that" "Messiah" traditional excellence for 26 years, taking it to new levels >
        • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s" performance, 1976 >
          • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration” performance, 1981
      • Dr. William Holwerda ( MD) ~ Remembering him at the founder of "Svensk Hyllningsfest"
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg ~ Remembering her as the founder of the "Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers"
      • Mr. & Mrs. Hilding Jaderborg ~ Remembering them and their “Swedish Crafts Shop” – 65 years and 50 trips to Sweden
      • The Swedish Lindsborg Builders ~ Remembering them for the lovely homes they built
      • Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping ~ Honoring them for founding Lindsborg's “first” "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas." 1986 >
        • Recognizing their Folklife Institute's "Swedish-American Heritage Center," 1996
      • Ms. Rebecca Copley ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” graduate to become an International Opera Singer
      • Mr. Bruce Karstadt ~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate for heading up a major national Swedish American institution
      • Mrs. Becky Larson-Anderson ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” woman graduate to become mayor of "Little Sweden" USA
      • Dr. Mark Lucas ~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world stage
    • The Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes" ​ ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Collection >
      • Mr. Bror Carlsson and Mr. Alf Brorson from Sweden ~ Chronicling Founder Pastor Olof Olsson's missionary journey to Lindsborg from Värmland, Sweden
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson ~ An author of countless Swedish & English publications, newspapers, articles and books ...
      • Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy ~ Providing the only known history on Lindsborg and Bethany College's earliest Swedish photographer, B.G. Gröndal
      • Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin ​~ Compiling foundational Swedish Smoky Valley Augustana Lutheran settlements' histories and more
      • Dr. Emory Lindquist ~ Chronicling Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg [Selma Lind] ​ ~ Chronicling the Lindsborg of her day, its early histories, and more
      • Dr. Leon Lungstrom ~ Chronicling college professors and providing the "only known written" account on the Bethany College Museum
      • Ms. Karen A. Humphrey ~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture in the earliest years
      • Mr. A. John Pearson & Mr. Kenneth Sjogren ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents
      • Mr. Bill Carlson ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's earliest and later histories with a personal connection
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him as the "historian," the SVHA president and his body of work
      • Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist ~ Chronicling key Swedish Augustana Lutheran Smoky Valley settlements other than Lindsborg
      • Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers ~ Chronicling the "only known written" story on the beginnings of Bethany Home
      • Smoky Valley Historical Association Members ~ Researchers, compilers and writers of " Where Did They Live? "
    • ​Smoky Valley History Research Writers Website Designers ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Websites
    • Bethany College Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies ~ Their Royal Swedish Legacy Listings
    • His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden ~ Honoring him in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, 1976 >
      • Mr. Bill Carlson's Lindsborg's Bethany Home & the Swedish King's Visit
  • Contacts
    • For Lindsborg, 1869, CONTACT Today >
      • 2020 Christmas in Lindsborg ~ 'Welcome to Annandag Jul Worship from Sunnemo & Lindsborg"
      • 2020 Christmas in LIndsborg ~ the Ljuskröna and Apple Tree Exhibit" online presentation
    • ​For Bethany College, 1881, CONTACT Today
    • Closing Remarks & Traveling through SWEDES >
      • The Swedish American Legacy Photographs >
        • ​Lydia's Lindsborg's Photography​, ​1900 - 1925
        • Lydia's Bethany's Photography, ​1906 - 1925
"The Gateway" to Bethany -- the most lasting contribution of Lydia's Bethany Campus Association and the Class of 1917
          Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    (1873 - 1943)

  Class of 1900: McPherson College Bachelor's Degree in Commerce
Class of 1923: Bethany College
Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts
 Class of 1925: Bethany College
Bachelor's Degree in Science                      
 Lydia Elida Sohlberg was born on August 22, 1873 in Holmes City, Minnesota, and was the youngest of eight (8) children.  She and her siblings were tutored by a bachelor who lived with them.  In McPherson, Kansas she would go to public school and would  eventually earn a degree in Commerce at McPherson College in 1900. In Lindsborg at Bethany College she would earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1923 and a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1925.

Her parents, Anders Gustaf (AG) Sohlberg and Ingrid Elis Anderson Sohlberg, had begun their Swedish honeymoon and immigration journey to North America from
Jönköping just a few days after their Midsummers' wedding in 1854.  Sailing through the St. Lawrence Seaway, they were quarantine
in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, before entering the United States.  The first Swedish communities they lived in were found in Chicago, Wisconsin and Minnesota.  When they moved to McPherson, Kansas from Minnesota in 1880, Lydia was seven years old.  Here, her parents became charter members of the Swedish Lutheran Church (Trinity Lutheran Church) which was founded a year after their arrival. 

At the age of fifteen, Lydia was confirmed at the Lutheran church in New Gottland, nine miles northeast of McPherson where her oldest sister's Jennie's  husband, Rev. Aaron Wahlin, was pastor, a pastorate he held for eighteen years from 1886 to his death in 1904.  

While she was attending McPherson College, Lydia was also working as an assistant for her father who owned a mercantile business in McPherson.  Here she also worked with her cousin Ernest Sohlberg who had immigrated from Kosta, Sweden in 1885 and with Swede Eric Leksell who with his family and son-in-law-to-be, Birger Sandz
é
n, would become significant lifelong friends with Lydia's family.

Lydia's formal introduction  to Lindsborg came in 1900 after she graduated from McPherson College and opened up a millinery shop on Main Street with her twin sisters, Anna and Ida.  She was 28 and they were 30.  With this job came her interest in photography and the purchased of a Kodak camera which would produce a myriad of photographs for the next twenty-five years of her life lived in Lindsborg and at Bethany College.   

Her introduction to the College came in 1906 when she accepted a job
as "Dean of Women and Matron" (also referred to as the "Lady Principal and Matron") of the Ladies Dormitory, Lane Hart Hall, a position which lasted into 1913.    Here at the girls dormitory, she was noted by student Charles Swenson, Class of 1912, as "the charming matron at the girls’ dormitory. She was a favorite of all the girls who live there, as well as the aspiring young men who were privilege to visit Lane Hart Hall."**

In the mid 1920s, Lydia's artistic interest turned from photography to serious painting at Bethany when she began classes there in 1919, and an art class from professor Birger Sandzén.  All along though, early on in her life she practiced the handwork of Sweden and Scandinavia taught to her by her mother who worked as a seamstress in Jönköping, Sweden where her parents wedding took place.  Lydia, in turn, would teach this handwork at Bethany College around the time period from 1907 to 1913.

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 "The "Gateway" to Bethany -- the most lasting contribution of Lydia's Bethany Campus Association and the Class of 1917 

Go HERE for the history on The "Gateway to Bethany" and "Bethany Campus Association."


Lydia's Swedish Background *
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Throughout her life, Lydia kept in touch with her Swedish Sohlberg relatives in Sweden from her Uncle Ulric's family.   Ulric was her father's (AG's) brother and he also was the father of Ernest Sohlberg who had immigrated in 1855 to McPherson and would marry Selma, Lydia's sister.  Lydia's Uncle Ulric's family had lived in various places in Sweden but Kosta and Stockholm were the predominant cities they called home.  Ulric would enjoy good business enterprises in Sweden, one being a superintendent position at the Kosta Glasbruk Factory  (today's Kosta Boda) for nearly 20 years.  As the family story is told, his three daughters, Alma, Nina and Emma, would eventually make their living as seamstresses, sometimes taking their samplers of gold thread embroidery to the Royal Palaces in Stockholm and elsewhere for commission work.  As the letters from Sweden prove, there was much correspondence between these two families until 1955, with the death of the last member of Ulric's family, Emma Sohlberg.
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Giving us a glimpse of the way they were is the following tribute after the passing of Lydia on July 17, 1943 by her former student Eleonora Stromquist-Esping who knew her from childhood:
Passing of a Good Woman Who's Benefactions Will Live 

Picture

(With sincere devotion this tribute is dedicated to my former teacher Lydia Solberg Deere.)

“One of the most pathetic things about death” wrote the poet Holland, "is bidding goodbye to a body that has been the home of a generous spirit” – a spirit which has cheered and comforted and helped those within the range of its influence.
 
For years and years Mrs. Deere has been prominent in Lindsborg community life, and now she is gone. It is comforting to know that parting is only an interlude, for good deeds and love are eternal.
 
Lindsborg will miss her for her fine qualities of friendliness and gracious personality. Women of her solid worth, "the salt of the earth,” when they go, may be likened to the disappearing of an old landmark.

Lydia Deere was a superior woman, a devoted wife to her distinguished husband, (also a former teacher of mine and of my husband), a loyal friend, a useful citizen of this nation, a devout Christian of undisturbed serenity, whose sterling womanhood was founded on faith in the hereafter. She walked through the valley of the shadow of death, but feared no evil, for she followed the path of righteousness while goodness and mercy strode beside her to the end of the journey. "We bless thee that they have passed into the light.”  (From a Scotch Book of Prayer.)
 
In a world which is crowded with people, all clamoring for distinction in some legitimate way, Mrs. Deere excelled with her gift of art.
 
In the words of the beautiful Shakespearean phrase, Mrs. Deere ”dropped manna in the way of starved people.” It was she, who, in my early childhood days, developed “the love of and for all things beautiful,” which had already been aroused and inspired.

It seems but yesterday that our lively trio in Model School… Bertha Holmberg-Anderson, Rosalie Welin-Brown, and I were hurrying (with our braided pigtails a flying tied with huge hair-ribbon bows) to Miss Sohlberg's apartment at the Ladies’ Dormitory (Mrs. Deere was at that time Dean of Women and Matron of the Ladies Dorm) for our bi-weekly sewing lesson.  Her masterpieces of art and needlework were a constant source of inspiration to our impressionable minds…and under her excellent instruction our fingers grew nimble with lovely and useful hand-embroidered articles for our mothers and our “hope chests.”  I can easily describe in two words Mrs. Deere’s finished works – "exquisitely beautiful." Could these not also be applied to her life?

But it was not only the love of beauty and art which Mrs. Deere installed in our youthful minds and hearts but also an enjoyment of friendly, gay and instructive conversation. Because of her keen sense of humor, her ready and sunny disposition we were always assured of a "good time," too, when we as little girls had our sewing lessons. You will not wonder then, when the sad word of her passing reach me, that in my heart, I wept sorely and long.
 
Her strong supporting philosophy of life gave Mrs. Deere the elegance of moving smoothly through life.  Straight toward goals of accomplishment and joy; of soothingly stepping through life, dropping the healing word, giving the healing touch… a delightful person with the rare gift of a, "light touch.”  The shades of her heart were always pulled up; and the brilliant sunshine of courage, filling her world with warmth and beauty, was just outside her door. And at all times, her candles burned brightly before the high altar of faith and love.
 
Mrs. Deere truly lived the philosophy of Elbert Hubbard, The Sage of East Aurora. "Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. Create your friends with a smile and put your soul into every handclasp. We are gods in the chrysalis.”
 
I do know that because love has gone there is no ruin of the beauty of love which has been.  Every great human affection is immortal; so, perhaps, is every smallest. Memory is a miracle worker.  If you can remember the dead with a heart passionate enough, they do not die, at least until you so go yourself. And then if you, too, sleep eternally, shall they not sleep as well?
 
After the pioneers came the builders. The first have continued their westward venture into the haze of the setting sun. The ranks of the second are thinning rapidly. As Longfellow said: “The air is full of farewells to the dying in the morning for the dead."
 
Now that you are gone,  I am grateful for your Christian friendship. I keep in blessed memory your words of hope, cheer and goodwill. Your teachings left deep impression which will remain with me as a burning and shining light as long as memory lasts.


Durability

I saw a great redwood tree,
I saw 1 trillion stars;
I saw a fiery colored line
That left long sooty scars.
I saw a forest and a stream;
A cliff--hard wall of grey.
I saw a fawn – a hill of ferns
These, too, shall pass away.


Source: Lindsborg News Record obituary, July 17, 1943


Her photograph and obituaries appear HERE, in Lydia's Art, 1919-1938, scrolling to the end.
*A full description of Lydia's Swedish background is found HERE under the Swedish Immigration Story, 1854 section which includes add-on detailed information of their lives in Swedish Kansas. 
**
Swedish American Bethany College Science Professor Dr. Leon Lungstrom’s 1990 book, History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College Lindsborg, Kansas, page 167 which referenced it from the 1925 Bethany College student yearbook called the Daisy.
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~

reconnecting past to present
*     *     * 
All color photography throughout Swedes:  The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
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