LISA WIBORG – THE GRAND OLD LADY OF
THE SWEDISH AND SCANDINAVIAN COMMUNITIES IN SAN FRANCISCO
Lisa Wiborg was not only a “rock star” of our church for decades, but also a Rocking Star among young and old Scandinavians of the Bay Area for more than 60 years.
Who was she? What can we learn from her remarkable life?
She was a rising star already as a young teenager and over her lifetime she received many Awards and Honors. At age 13 she was recognized as Best Sales Person of the Year in “Jul-femman”, a Christmas lottery organized every year by Svenska Dagbladet to support the needy and homeless in Sweden. First Prize was a trip to Stockholm to meet the Queen. This was not the last time she would meet and befriend royalties and dignitaries. In fact, she would host many of them including the future king of Norway in her beautiful residence a block away from Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District pf San Francisco, where I interviewed her just before her 95th birthday.
After reading her biographies I had collected, I still had some questions:
How are you holding up in the Pandemic? Each time I call, you seem to be busy reading novels, and last time I asked you said you were up to one or two dozen novels since March. Is that your secret how to keep mentally strong and sharp in the midst of the historic challenges of COVID?
In fact, this is nothing new. I survived the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when I had to evacuate my apartment. I also lived through the Second World war and I will never forget the restrictions, poverty and hunger I witnessed during my teenage years. My response was, what could I do to help? So, I joined the Lotta Kåren, a defense organization enrolling teen age girls volunteering to help our soldiers. As soon as I turned 18 and got my driver’s license, I joined Bil-kåren, the young women driving trucks and buses for transport of soldiers and supplies to the Norwegian boarder. Part of the mission was to support the underground defense movement of Norway, where, it turned out, my future husband and his best friend the Crown Price of Norway played active roles. I learned to be strong, brave, and self-reliant. I learned to change tires and spark plugs, etc. I even slept in tents with the soldiers in the forests close to the boarder, I felt like one of them despite I was just a young girl.
To live a life for others and to be open for new adventures have remained the mottos of my life ever since. After the war I continued my volunteering while working in a bank in Orebro, my home city.
When I was 27, I won a scholarship to study languages in London for a year. Two years later I was ready to discover USA and perhaps even to immigrate. After arriving in Rochester, I met a family who invited me help driving to Atlanta, a city which lived in my dreams after reading “Gone with the Wind” They also insisted I came with them to Florida and that’s how I got my life’s first and only speeding ticket. Then they left me on my own and I continued exploring the continent by Grey Hound Buses all the way to Chicago.
How did you end up in San Francisco? How did you meet your husband?
I continued my journey and arrived by bus to San Francisco. When I saw the wonderful vistas overlooking the Bay and the Bridges, I said to myself: This is where I want to live. I was never afraid of meeting new people or of trying my luck. I knew banking, I knew English, and I knew how to treat customers. So, I applied for and got a job with the American Trust Company, nowadays Wells Fargo, on 225 Market Street. I also joined the Young Scandinavian Club och met many new friends including some diplomats from the Consulates who came to our dance events twice a month. We could have up to 300 persons attending.
I was born a leader and in 1961 I was appointed the first Woman to become Chair of the club and later I was appointed a Lifetime Honorary Member of the Club. In January 1964 I was invited to meet a Norwegian delegation headed by Crown Prince Harald. I was introduced to Christian Fredrik Wiborg a shipbroker. He came from a Norwegian shipping line family, and, like the Crown Prince, he had served in the Norwegian Underground during the WWII. I immediately realized this is the Man of My Life and we married on June 19 the same year. The subsequent 15 year were the happiest time of my life but unfortunately, he died in 1979. We also hosted Crown Prince Harald, who later became King Harald V.
I also met the Swedish Crown Prince Carl Gustav, when he was 20 and stationed on board Älvsnabben, a visiting mine layer of the Swedish Navy. In 1973 he became King Carl XVI Gustav, and I met him the following year to receive the Royal Vasa Order, Commander of 1st Class. When he returned to our city in 1976 just before he married Silvia, I had the honor of presenting him with an engagement gift on behalf of the Swedish Colony in San Francisco.
How did you discover the Swedish Church?
In 1957 I took the initiative to the Annual Saint Lucia Procession of the Young Scandinavian’s Club, and when the Swedish Church liked our idea, they adopted our annual Lucia Celebration. I had grown up in the Swedish church in Orebro where I was baptized and confirmed. However, my deeper involvement in the Church came at a mature age and identified with the mission of the Church to live a selfless life in service of others. They say I am like a potato that can be used for many things, and I never hesitated washing dishes or helping mailing letters etc. They also needed help with fund raising and I saw an immediate opportunity to turn the coffee table into a monthly fundraising event by inviting different Sponsors from the Swedish companies and organizations. I also like to help organize lotteries for Christmas, which I still enjoyed doing for many decades!
With my husband being Norwegian I also became active in the Norwegian Seaman’s Church. I am still Lifetime Honorary Board Member of both The Swedish and the Norwegian Churches as well as Lifetime honorary Members of the Boards of Young Scandinavian Club and SWEA. It seems practical that both churches can meet in this beautiful building which belongs to the Norwegian Seaman’s Church in Norway and San Francisco.
How did you end up as a hostess of the Winter OS in Squaw Valley in 1960? Do you miss being socially and physically active during the pandemic?
When I was chair of Young Scandinavian Club, I helped acquire the cottages in Lear Lake and lake Tahoe close to the games. When they were looking for hostesses for the different teams I volunteered. In fact, I liked the area in Tahoe so much that later bought a house there very close to the tracks. When we were married, we used to go up there every weekend on Friday afternoons. In the garage I was keeping the long skis of Sixten Jernberg, who had given them to me after the OS. I kept them there for years but one day these Olympic trophies were stolen. As I liked skiing, I continued with waterskiing and won some awards!
My exercise during the pandemic is limited to short walks to the Palace of Fine Arts, where I like to sit on a bench watching the swans. Sometimes my friends show up with a coffee basket. I avoid inviting friends to my apartment as much as possible as I am trying hard to be sheltering rigorously.
Yes, I feel somewhat bored as I am used to be a hostess and an active part of the Swedish and Scandinavian Community and social scene. For my 90th birthday celebration 120 guests showed up at the fabulous Swedish American Hall on Market Street in Castro. That was another highlight of my entire life.
Guest of honor at her table on her 90th birthday was Count Jan Leenhouts, who at the time was 99 years old. He would live on anther three years and died in 2018 at the age of 102.
There was no doubt that Lisa Wiborg and Jan Lewenhaupt had many memories to share for many dinner conversations, He was born in London 1916, the son of a Swedish count, His mother was the grand daughter of the first Chief Justice of California, Serramus Clinton Hastings, who had founded Hastings Law college in SF in 1878. While Lisa was driving trucks to the Norwegian boarder to support the resistance movement when she got her drivers licensee in 1943, Jan Lewenhaupt returned to Stockholm that year after serving as a volunteer in the Finnish Winter war against Soviet. Later that year Lewenhapupt married a Swedish lady and got nine children and emigrated to San Francisco Bay area and built a big home in San Mateo where he lived until his death.
Both of them had a passion for skiing and sports. Like Lisa and her husband, he and his family had a second home in Tahoe and the families became close friends.
No doubt Lisa felt lonely after this long friendship ended. She also had a worsening hearing loss that contributed to her feeling isolated. I called her a few times last July she was not well but was always clear in her head. Inger Skogstrom and Tina Lewenhaupt visited her regularly and when Tina in early August noticed that she had further loss of appetite and fluid intake she arranged acute admissions first to St Frances Hospital followed by extended care at Aldersly in San Rafael where several of us saw her a few days before she died. Her last word was Help! I gave a little cross made of cedar wood from Israel, which she grabbed with a firm hand and put on her chest over her heart. There was no doubt in my mind that she knew what was happening and where to find Help.
Rest in Peace!
Peace over all beautiful memories of this truly Grand Lady…