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How easy would you find it to pick up and move from a nation in one part of the world to a country in another part of the world and start your life over?
Klaus S. Andersen was born in Denmark on September 11, 1897, where he grew up to become a fisherman. Why Andersen moved from Denmark all the way to Alaska is unknown, but it was not uncommon in the early 1900’s, when many people wanted to come to America to seek a new life. Most Europeans who arrived in the United States first came through New York City and while some stayed in the Big Apple, others migrated to others parts of the country. But for some reason Klaus Anderson went just about as far west as one can go ending up in Sitka, Alaska. Perhaps he went there to continue his life as a fisherman, but he ended up taking a job with the United States Lighthouse Service.
While in Alaska, Klaus Andersen began corresponding with Mamie Sorenson who lived in La Salle Illinois; a long way from Alaska. He went to visit her and within a short time thereafter they were married and settled in Peru, Illinois, where they opened a grocery store. However, the store didn’t fair well and before too long Klaus Andersen was back in the service of his government, but this time it was on the Great Lakes.
His daughter, Lo Anne Andersen Brown, recently shared her fond memories of those days on the Great Lakes starting when her father became a lighthouse keeper at Ile Aux Galets Lighthouse, which is also known as Skillagallee Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located on a small island in Lake Michigan west of Waugoshance Lighthouse and is close to the shipping channel approach to Gray’s Reef Passage and the Straits of Mackinac.
One day her kindergarten teacher called Lo Anne’s mother and asked if Lo Anne’s father really was an Eskimo. It seems she told everyone in kindergarten that he was, since he came from Alaska.
Lo Anne recalled that she and her sister loved being on the island with the lighthouse and would spend hours exploring the island. Her father often jokingly commented that the reason they had so many freckles was because they ate seagull eggs. Her father would often take them in small boat and row them around the island.
In his spare time her father would carve out boats by the light of the kerosene lamp and put them in bottles. Her mother did a lot of sewing at the lighthouse and her father loved to knit and made a number of winter hats and scarves for the family.
In 1941, as the lighthouse closed for the winter season they went back to Peru, Illinois, to visit their grandparents. It was there, while in a movie theatre, that the movie was stopped and the announcement was made that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and the nation was plunged into war. Her father, who was no longer in the Lighthouse Service, having transferred to the Coast Guard, was ordered to report to Chicago, where he was assigned to the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.
Eventually Klaus Andersen was transferred to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and the family went with him. It was here that Lo Anne attended a one-room school. Her fondest memories at Sturgeon Bay were climbing the tower with her father when he would check the light.
After Sturgeon Bay, her father was sent to Racine, Wisconsin where they lived in a second floor apartment in nearby Kenosha. One day the boiler in the basement exploded and they all ran outside fearing for their lives. Her sister started crying because she had left her doll in the apartment and Lo Anne ran back into the house and retrieved the doll. Although her sister was happy, Lo Anne received a strong reprimand from her parents.
Her father was transferred again, this time to Ludington, Michigan, but their stay there was short. Soon they arrived in Charlevoix, Michigan where they rented a small but nice house that they were happy in until they found mice in the basement. Lo Anne recalled the day her mother got sick and had to throw up. When she did, her father threw some chicken parts in the toilet. Lo Anne said, “I thought Mom was going to die — she was so scared.”
Lo Anne said the family didn’t have much money in those days, and many items were hard to get, especially with the war rationing, but their home was always filled with love. To earn some money, Lo Anne and her sister would bring home fine beach sand, color it and then sell it. Her mother also made some extra money playing the piano.
Her father was then assigned to the Coast Guard Buoy Depot in Charlevoix and they moved into a large house that was at the site. It was here that grandfather Andersen and his dog Pal came to live with them. Grandpa Andersen maintained a small garden behind the Buoy Depot keeper’s house next to the lilac bush and Lo Anne says she can still smell that fragrance to this day.
Whenever the Coast Guard tenders would arrive at the Buoy Depot and tie up at the dock, Lo Anne and her sisters were ordered to stay in the house and not answer the door; Grandpa, Mother or Dad would do that. It seems that her father, with all those young sailors around, was very protective of his daughters.
Lo Anne and Grandpa Andersen would often sit on the pier and fish together — this was always an enjoyable time. It was on the pier, while fishing, when they received word that President Franklin Roosevelt had died.
After finishing high school in Charlevoix, Lo Anne and her sister Viola got married and they moved away; Lo Anne to Detroit and her sister, Viola, to Omaha, Nebraska. Living relatively close, Lo Anne came back often to visit. During one Easter visit, her father was not feeling well. As she was leaving, her father walked her to the back porch. Lo Anne told him she would be back next week. Her father must have had a premonition, as he replied, “This is the last time you’ll see me.” He died two days later, April 24, 1954.
Lo Anne says she has so many memories, some happy and some sad, but she feels fortunate to have grown up with the family that offered her so many adventures and the opportunity to meet so many people.
All those life-learning experiences went with her in life. Lo Anne worked for the Charlevoix County State Bank from 1947 to 1993 where she worked her way up through the ranks, starting as a check filing clerk to Senior Vice President and Cashier and even as Interim Chief Executive Officer. She is widely respected in the Michigan banking community having served as a president of the National Association of Bank Women and in 1989 was named by the Northwestern Financial Review as one of the top most distinguished women in banking. Not bad for a girl who started life as a light keeper’s daughter.
We wish to thank Lo Anne Andersen Brown for sharing these wonderful and heart-warming memories with us from another era in time.
This story appeared in the
July 2008 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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