PALMBERG, Ethel (Swanson) 1903-1997

PALMBERG, SWANSON, JOHANSSON

Posted By: Diane Johnson (email)
Date: 1/4/2003 at 08:41:45

PALMBERG, ETHEL SWANSON
Funeral Pamphlet
Ethel was born on a farm near Valley Springs, SD, on Jan 13, 1903. She was the eldest of three children born to Jon Albert Swanson and his wife, Selma Johansson. Both had emigrated from Sweden. Selma and Albert were married in March, 1902.

They farmed for the next four years and in October, 1906, auctioned off all their equipment and livestock. Then they traveled to Sweden with their three-year-old daughter and stayed for eight months. Memories of that experience kept Ethel with one foot in Sweden for the rest of her life. Back in America, Albert responded to "western fever" and the family moved to a farm near Kennebec, SD. They lived in a chicken coop while a house was being built, and for the next several years experienced rattlesnakes, tornadoes, and drought.
When Albert had enough of dry-land farming, they returned to Minnehaha County and rented the "Iverson place" between Brandon and East Sioux, on the Big Sioux River. Ethel spoke only Swedish when she entered grade school at the age of eight. At the two-room country school between East Sioux and the river, her best friend was Selina Prescott. She often visited Selina at her home over a hill to the southwest, and recalled seeing stagecoach tracks as they walked across the prairie. In the spring, wild flowers she found beside the railroad tracks that went through East Sioux, and along the banks of the river, inspired another lifelong theme; a love of beauty, especially the beauty of nature. In March 1918, Albert and Selma bought a farm on the Iowa-South Dakota border. Ethel completed grade school that spring in Rowena.

During these years the family belonged to the Grandview Covenant church near Granite, Iowa. In 1920, a young seminary student, Arvid Carlson came as a summer intern. He stayed with different families, and while with Albert and Selma, he persuaded them to allow Ethel to go to North Park Academy. So in the fall of 1920, Ethel and three of her cousins boarded the train for Chicago at the railroad station in Granite. (Lydia Anderson, Elmer Swanson, and Lawrence Swanson) Ethel's high school years were interrupted by the farm depression in the '20's. She returned home in 1922 to work and to help her mother through a period of ill health. In 1926 Ethel went back to Chicago to finish her education; she supported herself by working as a cook for families in Evanston; joined the North Park church; and met Oscar Palmberg, a minister's son from Nebraska.

They became engaged in 1928 and were married in the Grandview Church on June 19, 1929. They set up housekeeping in an apartment near North Park and had hopes of buying a farm, perhaps in IL; those dreams vanished with the stock market crash in October, 1929. Their eldest daughter Carola, was born in 1930, and in 1931 they moved to Nebraska and lived on a series of rented farms near Aurora. Between 1932 and 1936, sons Carl, Harold, and Jon, and daughter Evangeline, were born. During these years of economic hardship and drought, Ethel longed to move to Minnesota with its trees and lakes. Instead, the family moved to SD in the fall of 1937, and spent the winter with Ethel's parents. In the spring of 1938, son Paul was born, and Oscar and Ethel rented a run-down farm on the Iowa side of the state line near Albert and Selma. The children attended country school, Sioux #2, and high school either in Valley Springs, SD or in Larchwood, IA. Son Dale was born in 1942.

Gradually both the economic and living situation improved, and Oscar and Ethel bought their rented farm in 1945. Then in 1946, Ethel had what was at that time called a "nervous breakdown" and was hospitalized in Chicago and in Cherokee, IA. She slowly recovered, and a new house was built in 1949. In 1954, Oscar died from leukemia. Eldest son Carl came home from the Air Force to take up farming, and Ethel remained in her home (in Lyon Co.) until 1965, when she bought a bungalow in Sioux Falls. There she joined the First Covenant Church and continued to participate in her garden club and poetry group. In 1967, she traveled to Sweden - the first of five trips she would make over the next 16 years. In 1979, granddaughter Lisa went with her, and they met daughter Evangeline and son-in-law John in Sweden. While there, Evangeline arranged to have an authentic Swedish costume made for Ethel as a Christmas gift - a gift she enjoyed until the end of her life.

In 1985, Ethel decided that she no longer wanted to live alone, and moved to Minneapolis to be with daughter Carola. She joined Bethlehem Covenant Church, and found special joy in, for the first time, being allowed to serve communion as a member of the Board of Deacons. Until her stroke on Feb 24th, Ethel faithfully attended Sunday school and church services and the Thursday Bible Encounter. She also enjoyed the farm retreat near Amery, WI. Following her stroke, Ethel was unhappy with her brief stay for rehabilitation. She wanted to be in her own rooms. On March 25th she came home and was cared for by her daughters until her death on March 31, surrounded by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, flowers, Swedish hymns, psalms and prayers. She leaves a legacy of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, or appreciation of all of God's creation, of devotion to her faith, and of the beautiful things she liked to make, including poetry, bobbin lace, and tatted snowflakes. God bless her memory.
Buried - Grandview Covenant Cemetery, April 5, 1997