Clarence Dave Blomberg
The crops are in, and the day is done. Clarence Dave Blomberg was born at St. David’s Hospital in Austin on June 2, 1930, to Beda Kylberg Blomberg and John Hilding Blomberg. He was brought to their home in Carlson where he would live until his death on August 6, 2021. Clarence was baptized and confirmed at the New Sweden Lutheran Church where he was a member for all his 91 years. He attended Willow Ranch School and then graduated from Elgin High School. He liked to remember his 1947 senior class trip taken in a school bus to Washington, D.C. This was the only time he left the state of Texas in his long life. Carlson is a rural community near Elgin where three generations of Clarence’s family had lived on the same land. He farmed the land with his brother until Harold’s death in 2011. He then farmed alone until in his late 80s when he turned over the farming to friend, Aaron Anderson. The soil and the crops he would grow on that soil were his life. He lived a simple life without the modern conveniences that most people expect these days except a television. He didn’t see any reason to improve on the home his grandparents had built in 1889. Clarence and his brother were somewhat famous in Småland, Sweden, the area from which their grandparents had immigrated. In the early 1990s, a Swedish journalist came to their home to make a video showing Clarence and Harold and their simple lifestyle on the Blackland Prairie. He recorded the two of them speaking the old Swedish language they had learned from their parents and grandparents but is rarely spoken in modern Sweden. When the show was on Swedish TV, they became instant celebrities. Swedish family members who visited Austin wanted to meet Clarence and Harold and experience their simple lifestyle. Clarence enjoyed talking about farming, the weather, and speaking Swedish, especially with his good friend from high school, Stephen Fredrickson. Clarence was engaging with a quiet, sincere demeanor and a determined work ethic. He had a subtle sense of humor and was an astute listener who would kindly correct any mistaken facts.
Clarence was preceded in death by his parents, Beda and John Blomberg and his brothers, Wilburn and Harold. He is survived by many Kylberg and Blomberg cousins in Texas and Sweden.
A special thank you goes to Milton Culwell, his second cousin and caregiver; special friends, Viola Ekenstam, and Marie Ott.
Memorial Contributions can be made in Clarence’s Memory to the Friends of Manda School, P.O. Box 50385, Austin, Texas 78763
A graveside service will be held at the New Sweden Cemetery, Friday August 13th at 3:00 PM with Pastor Hans Lillejord presiding. Arrangements and care are entrusted to Elgin Funeral Home.