Lundberg, Ingeborg Christine

July 8, 1911 ~ October 19, 2012 We celebrate the 101 years of Ingeborg Christine Lundberg, “Chris” to all who knew her, of Christiansburg, who passed away on Friday, October 19, 2012. She will always be remembered for her sweet smile and warm caring personality. She was born in a one-room log cabin in Quamba, Minn., on July 8, 1911, to parents who emigrated from Sweden. As the oldest of five children, after completing only third grade, she had many responsibilities, including helping care for her younger siblings, milking cows, feeding chickens, helping with the garden, harvesting, and other household chores. There was little time to play. She spoke about “sneaking” up to the roof of the barn to play with cornhusk dolls while her dad took a mid-day nap. But, there was a close family bond all her life with her brothers and sisters, from all sharing the same bed with occasional snow flurries on the cover from the attic eaves, to spending many good times together as adults. Chris met her husband, Carl John Lundberg, at the Quamba church when he came to stay with his older sister in the country for the summer. Chris thought he was very “rude” when he crawled through the back window of her dad’s Model-T Ford that she was driving to ask for a ride home, and of course get a chance to meet the girl with the beautiful smile. After a few years of working as a maid and seamstress in the city (Minneapolis), she married Carl at the family home in Quamba in 1935. They began their married life living upstairs in Carl’s family home in Minneapolis. They moved to Southern California with their three children, LeRoy, John, and Ruthie, and Chris’s mother in 1945. Ruth remembers her dad and Chris’s brothers building the house. Over the years, the children grew up in a very loving home. Chris was frugal, sewing clothes for her children and making meals using very little money. Ruth remembers her mother baking wonderful bread and speaking Swedish with her grandmother, who never learned English. “Yag alskar dig,” “I love you” in Swedish, was often said in that home. Chris was very proud that all of her children completed college. She worked at odd jobs (sewing factories, etc.) when the family needed extra money. Her husband, Carl, worked at many jobs, but ended up as a government inspector for parts used in space flights. So, together, they experienced the world go from horse and buggy to televisions, computers and space ships. After Carl died, Chris moved to Virginia to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Ruth and George Lacy. She was a good traveler and enjoyed trips across the country and went on many cruises with them. She enjoyed going to the Senior Center in Blacksburg, helping in Ruth’s school (Harding Ave.), and attending the United Methodist Church. She even went tent camping with her grandchildren and great- grandchildren at 97 years of age. Chris enjoyed living at Wheatland Retirement Home in Christiansburg for the last four years, receiving loving care and sharing her warm smile with everyone there. She is survived by her 95 year old sister, Amy Walblom; son, LeRoy and wife, Carolle; son, John and wife, Glenna; and daughter, Ruth and husband, George Lacy. She has five living grandchildren, Sheri Lee Lundberg, LeAnn Lundberg, Yaxpal Lacy and wife, Gail Hunger, Kyla (Lacy) Cheynet and husband, John Cheynet, and Todd Lundberg. On Chris’s 100th birthday, she got many hugs from all five of her great-grandchildren, Zadie and Isidor Lacy, Austin, Grant, and Ellie Cheynet, and Michael Lundberg. The legacy of Chris’s name “Ingeborg,” which means daughter in Swedish, has continued for five generations from her grandmother and herself to her daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter. Chris will be greatly missed. But, her cheerful smile and sweet caring demeanor will always be kindly remembered in the hearts of all who shared in her life.