Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
(Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925)
(Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925)
Our Sohlberg Home and Neighbor Alma Luise Olson
We were to be Miss Olson's neighbors.
She had led a most extraordinary life after graduating from Bethany College when she began a career working for the New York Times which opened up to her an exciting career in international affairs and living in Sweden. In 1940, the year of her retirement from the Times, she became "the first American woman" to receive Sweden's highest award for women during the reign of King Gustaf Adolf, the "Vasa Medallion," for spreading knowledge of Sweden to the United States. Go HERE, to see title of her obituary in the New York Times.
In 1962, my mother, Lois Fry Cochran, was thrilled when she at 39, my sister Melinda at 10, and I at 16, were able to rent Sohlberg House from Bethany College mathematics professor Anna Marm who eventually sold the house to us after our mother was able to finance it through a government loan! Here we lived happily in the 1904 retirement home of our relatives, my mother's great grandparents and our great great grandparents, Anders and Ingrid Sohlberg. (We had moved to Lindsborg from California in stages and were all together finally in 1962.)
My mother, a polio invalid of the early 1950s confined to a wheelchair, would call Miss Olson on the phone and have extensive interesting conversations with her. My sister would visit her as well after school. She would died alone in her home on April 29, 1964.
Twenty years later after her death, our Sohlberg House was donated to the Lindsborg Evangelical Covenant Church when our mother join my sister and me in San Francisco to live with us after having lifesaving surgery there. Her move to San Francisco brought to an end our mother's wonderful sojourn in Swedish Lindsborg for twenty-three years!!
Source: Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg's 1965 "Lindsborg On Record" story, "International Relations."
She had led a most extraordinary life after graduating from Bethany College when she began a career working for the New York Times which opened up to her an exciting career in international affairs and living in Sweden. In 1940, the year of her retirement from the Times, she became "the first American woman" to receive Sweden's highest award for women during the reign of King Gustaf Adolf, the "Vasa Medallion," for spreading knowledge of Sweden to the United States. Go HERE, to see title of her obituary in the New York Times.
In 1962, my mother, Lois Fry Cochran, was thrilled when she at 39, my sister Melinda at 10, and I at 16, were able to rent Sohlberg House from Bethany College mathematics professor Anna Marm who eventually sold the house to us after our mother was able to finance it through a government loan! Here we lived happily in the 1904 retirement home of our relatives, my mother's great grandparents and our great great grandparents, Anders and Ingrid Sohlberg. (We had moved to Lindsborg from California in stages and were all together finally in 1962.)
My mother, a polio invalid of the early 1950s confined to a wheelchair, would call Miss Olson on the phone and have extensive interesting conversations with her. My sister would visit her as well after school. She would died alone in her home on April 29, 1964.
Twenty years later after her death, our Sohlberg House was donated to the Lindsborg Evangelical Covenant Church when our mother join my sister and me in San Francisco to live with us after having lifesaving surgery there. Her move to San Francisco brought to an end our mother's wonderful sojourn in Swedish Lindsborg for twenty-three years!!
Source: Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg's 1965 "Lindsborg On Record" story, "International Relations."
Coeds in front of Alma Luise Olson's childhood home where she retired in 1940.
(Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925)
The Alma Luise Olson Home
(Photograph taken from Sohlberg House by Lydia)
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"Let Us Celebrate Them"
* * *
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.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
"Let Us Celebrate Them"
* * *
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.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
