Grace G. (Gabriele) Karlsen

Haakon Svendsen was raised in Gamvik Norway by his mother, Amanda Stevenson. He joined the American Army when the Nazi's invaded his home town in Finnmark. His sister was pregnant with boy and girl twins but the Nazis made sure that his sister and her twins died. But God made sure that this evil act would be partially rectified and nine months later in Brooklyn, New York, my twin brother and I were born! His mother Amanda Svendsen's boy and girl twin grandchildren Sandra and Stewart would always be treasured by their grandmother. Haakon gladly joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Colorado but was assigned to special and more dangerous Merchant marine assignments in the North Sea because of his knowledge of seamanship, of the German language, and his fluency in Norwegian and English. I read a letter he wrote to my mother and was shocked how perfect his English was. Today English is taught in Norway in the Public Schools, but back then English wasn't that common. My father loved to sing and play guitar, tell jokes, and had a high degree of culture. For many years I was extremely close to Jan Clayton and my mother said that my father had taken her to see Jan Clayton in 1946 to see the revival of "Show Boat" on Broadway. My mother later bought Jan's show albums for me as Christmas presents. I still have the original albums 60 years later. (And 75 letter and cards from Jan Clayton.) My father took me on a ship in Brooklyn and showed me around and introduced me to some Dutch sailors. I ended up studying Norwegian in high school and even today I am still studying Norwegian. My relatives (his sister's first child Karl-Arne Fredheim) came to stay with me. His wife Marianne could not speak English but his daughter "Connie" (Aude Fredheim) is fluent in English. I told them that I would talk to Marianne in Norwegian and they scoffed. Later they were surprised that I spoke a very formal Norwegian because my teacher, Dr. Samuel Abrahamsen taught a very formal Norwegian. There is a tribute to Samuel Abrahamsen by me on ancientfaces.

3 Children ONLY. John Richard Svendsen, Stewart Haakon Svendsen and Sandra Amanda Svendsen, now Amanda Stevenson.