Alice Pedersen
1902 - 2006
in memoriam
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Alice, ready to attend The
Great Gatsby at the Metropolitan
Opera (age 98) |
Alice demonstrating the 1925 Charleston (age 98) |
Alice Pedersen died at nearly one hundred four years of age, blind and weak, but in mind and spirit she was in the prime of her life. She had a remarkable effect on those who knew her because she entered into their lives with a compassion and concern for their well-being. She was a searcher for what she called “truths” – personal, social, political and religious. She never stopped learning about, and listening to, the outer world. She was born in Sparta, Illinois on July 7, 1902, and died at her farm in Token Creek (Wisconsin) May 24, 2006. She grew up on a farm in southern Missouri, where she recalled riding on a buckboard, spoke of a hardscrabble life, and rode a horse ten miles to teach school at the age of eighteen. In her early twenties she went to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, intending to become a missionary to China. There she met her future husband, Daniel Pedersen, with whom she shared a great love and passion for life. They both went on to Crane Junior College until the Great Depression sent them searching for survival on the farm at Token Creek in 1933. There they discovered new beginnings: organic farming and the religious writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg which became their spiritual guide. Alice’s great loves were poetry, religion and social justice. She was a prairie radical, one of the generation that helped define modern America. Her anti-war activism, management of the farm after her husband’s untimely death, and travel to Europe and China were part of her quest to explore the world around her. She had a life that was both humble and unique. In her mid-twenties she brought the first car for her family, a Baby Overland, and drove it from Chicago to Missouri. Much later, at age 99, she attended the premiere of her son-in-law’s opera, “The Great Gatsby,” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York – in her first long dress. She entered fully into her violinist daughter’s world of classical music, and became a kind of den mother to the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, where she will be sorely missed. The accompanying photo of her was taken by Katrin Talbot at Alice’s 100th Birthday celebration. She had many wonderful friends and care-givers, among them Lea Heine, Millie Muir, Kathy Klubertanz, Bob and Lois Zeman, Rita Handley, Kelly Mahoney, Greta Schroeder, Laura Marino, and Kolleen Kuran. They all enriched her life in her later years, as she recognized with love and appreciation. She is survived by her daughter Rose Mary and son-in-law John Harbison of Token Creek, Wisconsin and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and nieces and nephews in various parts of the country. Memorial gifts may be sent to the American Friends Service Committee, which carries out social justice and peace programs throughout the world: 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102.
