Kathryn Johanna Liljenstrom Sather, age 104, was born October 6, 1902 in Amery, Wis. Her family lived in a classic white-painted wood frame house across a gravel street from North Twin Lake. She and her two sisters would walk across the frozen lake in the winter to go to school. In the summer Kathryn spent much of her time boating and fishing on the lake.
She never lost her love of fishing. As a young mother later in New Richmond, she would wheel her oldest son in his baby carriage down to East First Street and fish off the backwater of the Willow River. One of the oft-told family stories was of a wonderful camping and fishing trip Kathryn, her husband Ervin, and Mildred (Ervin's sister) and Al Bitzer took in lthe 1930's on an island in Teal Lake near Hayward, Wis.
Following graduation from high school at Amery and a teacher's training course, she taught country school for one year. Then she worked in a hat shop in Amery.
On January 29, 1927 Kathryn married Ervin H. Sather of New Richmond. She remembered their wedding day as being bitterly cold. The couple had traveled to Minneapolis by train for the marriage, accompanied by their two attendants, her older sister Arvida, and a cousin William Liljenstrom.
Ervin was employed as a salesman for the New Richmond Roller Mills (later Doughboy Industries, Inc.). The young couple move to a house on South Washington Avenue in New Richmond where they lived until 1934, when they built a home at 145 North Starr on the East Side. Kathryn called that her home for nearly 70 years, living there alone after Ervin's death in 1986.
Three months after her 101st birthday, a fall resulting in a broken arm necessitated her move to the St Croix County Health Center where she completed her life. She and her family appreciated the skillful and loving care she received from the staff at the Health Center for her final three years.
Kathryn was a woman of brilliance, interested in the news of the day and widely read. She was a formidable opponent in cards, playing with the couples' friends in earlier years, and in later years going on 100 years of age, she could still routinely trounce her sons and grandchildren at gin rummy and backgammon.
She developed a flower and shrub garden around her home, which was one of the most beautiful in New Richmond. She was able to maintain it with very little outside help until she was nearly 100 years old.
She was a skilled seamstress and an accomplished cook, particularly of Scandinavian delicacies. Her rosettes, krumkake and sandbakels were to die for, not to mention "mice" cookies and English toffee. By happenstance, the "Sharing Memories" column of last week published the recipe for another of her specialties, Graham Cracker Cream Pie. She did impeccable stitchery and created many beautiful pieces for her family.
She was a lifelong member of the Eastern Star and a past Worthy Matron. The organization always remembered her; among her recent effects was a 2006 Christmas greeting card from the local Star membership.
In the earlier years of her marriage she had been a friend of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and participated in the "Ladies' Aid" at that church.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Arvid Oka Magnus and Christine Joanna Christopherson Liljenstrom, sisters Arvida Foster and Elise Williams, and husband Ervin H. Sather.
Kathryn is survived by her two sons, Arvid (Margaret) of Madison, WI, and Irvin (Mary) of New Richmond; grandsons Craig (Chi) of Brookfield, WI, Douglas of Hudson, WI, Andrew of San Francisco, CA, and Luke of Madison; granddaughters Laura (Reuben) of Kenya, Africa, and Erika of Arlington, VA; and great grandchildren, Kyle and Emily, James and Marie, and Loiweti and Naiboku.
A memorial service is planned at a later date by her family.
(New Richmond News - Thursday, December 21, 2006)
