Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Saturday, October 11, 2008 at 11:37:59 :
Independent Journal
Friday, October 12, 1979
ELSA L. JOHNSON, 98
A memorial service will be held next week for Elsa Lichtenberg Johnson, possible San Rafael’s oldest native, who died Wednesday in her sleep at her home in Oakmont, near Santa Rosa.
Mrs. Johnson, 98, had been in good health and recently enjoyed a family reunion on her birthday.
She was born in San Rafael at the family home at 201 Locust Ave., the youngest of six children of Mr. and Mrs. William Lichtenberg. Lichtenberg, a dative of Hanover, Germany, had had rice plantations in Java and was Hanoverian consul there before coming to San Rafael in 1873. He was in the import-export business in San Francisco.
The family home, a Victorian Gothic, long has been a local landmark.
Mrs. Johnson attended local schools and then graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1903, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. After a brief teaching career, she married Harry D. Johnson, of South Bend, Ind., an automotive electrical engineer.
He died in 1917 and Mrs. Johnson and her four children returned to the family home in San Rafael, where she spent most of her life. She moved to Oakmont about 11 years ago.
She was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael.
Surviving are two daughters, Lilia Page and Charlotte Guggenhime of San Francisco; a son, Harry D. Johnson III of Kentfield; 12 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren.
The memorial service will be at 4 p.m. next Wednesday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Burial will be in Mount Tamalpais Cemetery.
The family prefers memorial contributions to the American Heart Association or a favorite charity.
|
powered by SpudBoard |