- Born into a Dutch sugar plantation family in Malang, on the island of Java, Indonesia, Anna immigrated to the United States with her parents George Edward Gerald von Stietz and Gerarda Cornelia Van Zijll de Jong von Stietz and newborn sister, in December 1927. Leaving behind a privileged life, while her father looked for land to settle his family, for their first 6 months, Anna and her sister "Gerry" lived in San Francisco with her mother who learned to do the domestic chores of daily living, including learning to cook and to change diapers. After running a dairy farm near Merced - where her mother learned to milk cows - the family eventually moved to Berkeley. Her mother always considered living in America "a very hard life."
In her early school years, Anna's talents at playing piano and oil painting were recognized and they distinguished her throughout her life. She met her future husband, Russell Eric Wikander, in homeroom at Berkeley High School, where, to get his attention, she put out her foot and tripped him when he was walking between the rows of desks. He thought she was cute, but told her he didn't like the way she styled her hair!
Anna, a mid-termer (Berkeley families may remember mid-termers), just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, graduated from Berkeley High School. The graduation ceremony was held at the Oaks Theatre on her eighteenth birthday, December 18, 1941. Many in her class, herself and future husband included, enlisted in the armed services: many of her classmates never returned home.
Anna always said that serving in the Women's Army Corps was a life changing experience. Her talents as an artist were put to great use, illustrating military brochures, and she played the piano nearly every evening at base parties. She became a lifelong coffee drinker, because in the bitter cold Iowa winters - getting up at 5am reveille - a mug of hot coffee would warm her hands. In December 1945, Anna married Russell Eric Wikander in Willimantic, Connecticut, and they eventually settled in Berkeley, California. Her husband often marveled that they ever met at all, considering the geography that separated them at birth – she in Indonesia, and he in Groton, Connecticut.
Anna taught her children to play piano and each child took up a separate instrument. Holiday celebrations always included music and singing. Looking back, she regretted, while her children grew up, that she didn't set aside a room just for her artwork – maybe this would have encouraged her kids to include art in their own lives and to receive the pleasure she did from painting.
A talented woman whose family meant everything to her, she was predeceased by her husband of 63 years in 2006, and her sister, Gerarda von Stietz Nelson, who died in 1967. Besides dozens of oil paintings and several pianos, Anna leaves her four children and their spouses: Russell Eric Wikander, Jr. (Maureen), Hilma Wikander Jones (Mark), Bill Wikander (Jan) and Paul Wikander (Carrie), 10 grandchildren; Mark, Erica, Madeline and Caitlin, Nathan, Steven and Sara, Linnea and Spencer, and Jonas; and 3 great grandchildren Brian, Vanessa and Jackson.
Published in San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 14, 2014
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1923 - 2014 (90 jaar)
