Sofia (Jansson) Lundeen (1860 - 1939)

Anna Charlotta (Persdtr) Larson is the mother of my grandfather, Charles Henning Larson, who was a founder, hardware store owner and manager, and mayor for most of his life of Lake Norden, South Dakota. In 1947, Grandpa Larson drove down to Kansas to get a gravestone for his father, Lars Erik Jansson Larson, who had died in 1907, while living with the Gustava Charlotta Wattenstrom family near Rosalia. Lars is buried with his daughter's Wattenstrom family at Blankenship Cemetery in Butler, Kansas. Gusty died 11 Mar 1918, and perhaps it was after her death, but sometime after Lars' death in 1907, Charlotte lived with their daughter Sophie (Larson) Lundeen at Hill Head, South Dakota. My grandfather would visit his mother and his sister Sophie at Hill Head, and when his mother died, she was buried at Highlanda Lutheran Church Cemetery, at Langford where Axel, her oldest son and first emigrant from Sweden, had settled. When Sophie died in 1939, my grandfather provided a grave next to the plot designated for his own burial at Woodlawn Cemetery near Bryant, South Dakota. These memories are from my grandfather's journal which he kept during his trip to Kansas, and from relatives who told me of Sophie's care for her mother in her little home at Hill Head. Many times I have seen Sophie's grave, near my grandfather's right near the entrance to Woodlawn Cemetery. The three large marble slabs lying flat on the ground by the entrance are evident to all who go in the cemetery. Grandpa Charlie Larson, Mayor of Lake Norden, thus honored his dear sister Sophie, who was so kind to their mother.