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Updated March 15, 2009
Posted Feb. 6, 2003

Elsa M. Fagerstrom

Remembering Elsa

Jen started dropping "off some of my garden vegetables for her. She was always so appreciative. I will truly miss her. It is hard to see her shovel on her porch. It was incredible how she kept shoveling every year."

Send your memory, or bring it to the June 14 block party.

Elsa's Rhubarb Bread

Obituary

Elsa M. Fagerstrom, 88, was buried Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003, after funeral services at her church, Holy Cross Lutheran on Milwaukee Street. Elsa died in her sleep Monday, Feb. 3, at a nursing home where she had resided for a couple of months.

Memories

We'd like to collect stories and reminiscences about Elsa. Please send them by e-mail, or leave a note in the mail slot of 133 Ohio.

Elsa will be missed by the many neighbors who made up her extended family, as well as her relatives in Madison, Florida and Sweden, and her fellow Holy Cross congregants.

At Thursday's service, a woman read a message from Elsa's first cousin, Millie, who lives in Florida and could not attend the service. She said their mothers were sisters, and Elsa, 13 years her senior, was like a big sister to her. Elsa cared for her mother, father and her two brothers. She loved her church, and she loved people, especially her neighbors and the children. Millie thanked them for their kindess and for caring about Elsa, especially Debby and Sam the dog, whom Elsa watched over. Millie thanked Elsa's family in Madison for their devotion to Elsa.

Millie wrote that Elsa traveled many times to Sweden to visit her cousins. "They adored Elsa. They will miss her just like us."

Elsa was born Feb. 17, 1914, in Angermanland, Sweden.

She immigrated with her parents and two brothers to Madison thorugh Ellis Island, N.Y., in 1922. She attended Hawthorne school, having to start the first grade after immigrating. She lived on Union Street and later moved to Ohio Avenue, where she attended all the block parties, visited with neighbors and fed cookies to Christmas carolers.

Elsa owned and operated Elsa's Curlee Beauty Shop on Madison's East Side until her retirement. She was a longtime member of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, and of the East Side Business Women's Association, of which she was president in the early 1960s.

She loved to bake, and to omake jams and jellies. Elsa's family knew her best for her traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinners. She loved to serve the Lord through her church work, especially the Ruth Circle.

Elsa is survived by her second cousin, Betty and Betty's son David and their family in Madison, a niece in Texas; several cousins in Sweden; and family and neighbors in Madison. She was preceded in death by her parents, Gustav and Aiwy; and her two brothers, Ragner and Erik.

Burial was in Roselawn Memorial Park. Memorials may be made to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Ruth Circle, 2670 Milwaukee St., Madison, WI 53704.

Adapted from paid obituary in Tuesday's Wisconsin State Journal.