Emma Christina Lillian, 88, of Los Angeles, California, died Tuesday, February 17 at the Patrician Rehabilitation Hospital in Santa Monica, California, after having been in ill health for several months.
Miss Lillian was born in Lindsborg, Kansas, January 21, 1888, on a farm south of town owned by her parents John and Anna Lillian.
She lived most of her life in southern California, in the Palm Springs area, where she owned and operated the "Svenska" bungalows site in Cathedral City, California. After retirement she moved to Claremont, California and remained physically active and participating in the community.
Surviving are a brother, Elmer Lillian, Hartford, Kansas, nieces and nephews.
**
See the fascinating 2019 KCET PBS article about her and her Cathedral City female artists' colony, by Ann Japanga
"The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists"
By Ann Japenga, July 9, 2019
Christina was a wealthy dress designer to Hollywood, who was able to retire at age 35. She was of Swedish descent, and grew up in a Swedish speaking, enclave in Kansas. Exerpts from the article:
"...Born in 1888, she grew up in the plain little towns of Salina and Lindsborg, Kansas, which may be why she was later drawn to the plain little town of Cathedral City: It felt familiar. The future costume designer kept busy making clothes for her six siblings — dresses for her sisters, shirts for her brothers.
"Everybody spoke Swedish in these places," Lindquist says. "And when Christina was a teenager she declared: 'This Swedish peoples' settlement is too small. I'm going to Hollywood. And I'm going to make gowns for the movies.'"
Saving up money from a receptionist job, Christina left Kansas after her father's death in 1915. She paid her own way to Hollywood, where — as promised — she became a successful gown designer, making costumes for films featuring Greta Garbo, among others. As part of her metamorphosis she dropped Emma and became Christina.
"She declared she was never going to marry, not going to meet a man's demands," says Sharon. "She was not going to raise a carnival." Carnival was Christina's term for children and family.
Like Mabel Dodge in Santa Fe, Christina was seeking "a new world plan." The ingredients included communal living, immersion in nature, study of metaphysics and spiritual pursuits. A cornerstone of this new world was art. While Christina was an artist herself — she made constructions from cast-off tin and called them Taos Tintypes — she poured most of her energy into encouraging and housing her fellow artists.
Her fascination was cemented when she took a painting class with Hans Hoffman, the foremost teacher of abstract expressionism, in the 1930s. At the end of her class notes, Christina typed a personal addendum. "It was the last day of class. Hans Hoffman was sitting out in the sun. I went out to tell him goodbye. I said — You have given me enough to last my lifetime...."
Santa Fe, 1930s
After living in San Francisco and Hollywood, Christina's boho yearnings took her to Arizona and on to Santa Fe in the 1920s. "She bought a 1927 Studebaker, and she traveled out into the Arizona desert," says Lindquist. "She wanted to see if she could be a friend to the Apaches."
The Swedish rebel from Kansas puttered around the Arizona outback, offering rides to Indians. She found one man who had been out hunting and was trudging along with a stag across his shoulders. When the man declined her offer of a ride, Christina followed him until he finally gave in to fatigue and laid the carcass across the fender.
Of course, Christina would inevitably cross paths with the real Mabel Dodge Luhan. In the 1930s, Mabel Dodge invited her to come stay at her adobe home and salon in Taos. "She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools."
Cathedral City, 1940s-60s
Moving to the Coachella Valley, Christina first owned a small stone house in Palm Springs, reminiscent of the stone house her parents lived in on the Kansas frontier. The Araby cottage — still standing — was designed by a little-known architect, R. Lee Miller, the imaginative force behind some of Palm Springs' earthiest structures. Christina put up artists in Araby, then moved further down Highway 111 to Cathedral City — the poor relation of posh Palm Springs.
In the days before development, Cathedral City had the most expansive views — all the way to San Gorgonio and the little San Bernardinos. Rents were cheaper here, too. Cheap digs and big vistas played a part in the town's appeal to artists.
She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools...."
Christina's Final Years
In the last decade of her life, Christina Lillian moved to Claremont, California, to be near a relative. She died there in 1976. The little colony in Cathedral City Cove was forgotten until recently, as art collectors and scholars begin to rediscover Agnes Pelton. With the interest in Pelton, her free-spirited neighbors are beginning to peek from the shadows.
Still, much about the cove artists remains a mystery. We await the discovery of a journal, letters, or a witness to tell us the bigger story of Christina Lillian's New World Order."
Rest in Peace...
~Linda (48291572)
Miss Lillian was born in Lindsborg, Kansas, January 21, 1888, on a farm south of town owned by her parents John and Anna Lillian.
She lived most of her life in southern California, in the Palm Springs area, where she owned and operated the "Svenska" bungalows site in Cathedral City, California. After retirement she moved to Claremont, California and remained physically active and participating in the community.
Surviving are a brother, Elmer Lillian, Hartford, Kansas, nieces and nephews.
**
See the fascinating 2019 KCET PBS article about her and her Cathedral City female artists' colony, by Ann Japanga
"The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists"
By Ann Japenga, July 9, 2019
Christina was a wealthy dress designer to Hollywood, who was able to retire at age 35. She was of Swedish descent, and grew up in a Swedish speaking, enclave in Kansas. Exerpts from the article:
"...Born in 1888, she grew up in the plain little towns of Salina and Lindsborg, Kansas, which may be why she was later drawn to the plain little town of Cathedral City: It felt familiar. The future costume designer kept busy making clothes for her six siblings — dresses for her sisters, shirts for her brothers.
"Everybody spoke Swedish in these places," Lindquist says. "And when Christina was a teenager she declared: 'This Swedish peoples' settlement is too small. I'm going to Hollywood. And I'm going to make gowns for the movies.'"
Saving up money from a receptionist job, Christina left Kansas after her father's death in 1915. She paid her own way to Hollywood, where — as promised — she became a successful gown designer, making costumes for films featuring Greta Garbo, among others. As part of her metamorphosis she dropped Emma and became Christina.
"She declared she was never going to marry, not going to meet a man's demands," says Sharon. "She was not going to raise a carnival." Carnival was Christina's term for children and family.
Like Mabel Dodge in Santa Fe, Christina was seeking "a new world plan." The ingredients included communal living, immersion in nature, study of metaphysics and spiritual pursuits. A cornerstone of this new world was art. While Christina was an artist herself — she made constructions from cast-off tin and called them Taos Tintypes — she poured most of her energy into encouraging and housing her fellow artists.
Her fascination was cemented when she took a painting class with Hans Hoffman, the foremost teacher of abstract expressionism, in the 1930s. At the end of her class notes, Christina typed a personal addendum. "It was the last day of class. Hans Hoffman was sitting out in the sun. I went out to tell him goodbye. I said — You have given me enough to last my lifetime...."
Santa Fe, 1930s
After living in San Francisco and Hollywood, Christina's boho yearnings took her to Arizona and on to Santa Fe in the 1920s. "She bought a 1927 Studebaker, and she traveled out into the Arizona desert," says Lindquist. "She wanted to see if she could be a friend to the Apaches."
The Swedish rebel from Kansas puttered around the Arizona outback, offering rides to Indians. She found one man who had been out hunting and was trudging along with a stag across his shoulders. When the man declined her offer of a ride, Christina followed him until he finally gave in to fatigue and laid the carcass across the fender.
Of course, Christina would inevitably cross paths with the real Mabel Dodge Luhan. In the 1930s, Mabel Dodge invited her to come stay at her adobe home and salon in Taos. "She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools."
Cathedral City, 1940s-60s
Moving to the Coachella Valley, Christina first owned a small stone house in Palm Springs, reminiscent of the stone house her parents lived in on the Kansas frontier. The Araby cottage — still standing — was designed by a little-known architect, R. Lee Miller, the imaginative force behind some of Palm Springs' earthiest structures. Christina put up artists in Araby, then moved further down Highway 111 to Cathedral City — the poor relation of posh Palm Springs.
In the days before development, Cathedral City had the most expansive views — all the way to San Gorgonio and the little San Bernardinos. Rents were cheaper here, too. Cheap digs and big vistas played a part in the town's appeal to artists.
She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools...."
Christina's Final Years
In the last decade of her life, Christina Lillian moved to Claremont, California, to be near a relative. She died there in 1976. The little colony in Cathedral City Cove was forgotten until recently, as art collectors and scholars begin to rediscover Agnes Pelton. With the interest in Pelton, her free-spirited neighbors are beginning to peek from the shadows.
Still, much about the cove artists remains a mystery. We await the discovery of a journal, letters, or a witness to tell us the bigger story of Christina Lillian's New World Order."
Rest in Peace...
~Linda (48291572)
Emma Christina Lillian, 88, of Los Angeles, California, died Tuesday, February 17 at the Patrician Rehabilitation Hospital in Santa Monica, California, after having been in ill health for several months.
Miss Lillian was born in Lindsborg, Kansas, January 21, 1888, on a farm south of town owned by her parents John and Anna Lillian.
She lived most of her life in southern California, in the Palm Springs area, where she owned and operated the "Svenska" bungalows site in Cathedral City, California. After retirement she moved to Claremont, California and remained physically active and participating in the community.
Surviving are a brother, Elmer Lillian, Hartford, Kansas, nieces and nephews.
**
See the fascinating 2019 KCET PBS article about her and her Cathedral City female artists' colony, by Ann Japanga
"The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists"
By Ann Japenga, July 9, 2019
Christina was a wealthy dress designer to Hollywood, who was able to retire at age 35. She was of Swedish descent, and grew up in a Swedish speaking, enclave in Kansas. Exerpts from the article:
"...Born in 1888, she grew up in the plain little towns of Salina and Lindsborg, Kansas, which may be why she was later drawn to the plain little town of Cathedral City: It felt familiar. The future costume designer kept busy making clothes for her six siblings — dresses for her sisters, shirts for her brothers.
"Everybody spoke Swedish in these places," Lindquist says. "And when Christina was a teenager she declared: 'This Swedish peoples' settlement is too small. I'm going to Hollywood. And I'm going to make gowns for the movies.'"
Saving up money from a receptionist job, Christina left Kansas after her father's death in 1915. She paid her own way to Hollywood, where — as promised — she became a successful gown designer, making costumes for films featuring Greta Garbo, among others. As part of her metamorphosis she dropped Emma and became Christina.
"She declared she was never going to marry, not going to meet a man's demands," says Sharon. "She was not going to raise a carnival." Carnival was Christina's term for children and family.
Like Mabel Dodge in Santa Fe, Christina was seeking "a new world plan." The ingredients included communal living, immersion in nature, study of metaphysics and spiritual pursuits. A cornerstone of this new world was art. While Christina was an artist herself — she made constructions from cast-off tin and called them Taos Tintypes — she poured most of her energy into encouraging and housing her fellow artists.
Her fascination was cemented when she took a painting class with Hans Hoffman, the foremost teacher of abstract expressionism, in the 1930s. At the end of her class notes, Christina typed a personal addendum. "It was the last day of class. Hans Hoffman was sitting out in the sun. I went out to tell him goodbye. I said — You have given me enough to last my lifetime...."
Santa Fe, 1930s
After living in San Francisco and Hollywood, Christina's boho yearnings took her to Arizona and on to Santa Fe in the 1920s. "She bought a 1927 Studebaker, and she traveled out into the Arizona desert," says Lindquist. "She wanted to see if she could be a friend to the Apaches."
The Swedish rebel from Kansas puttered around the Arizona outback, offering rides to Indians. She found one man who had been out hunting and was trudging along with a stag across his shoulders. When the man declined her offer of a ride, Christina followed him until he finally gave in to fatigue and laid the carcass across the fender.
Of course, Christina would inevitably cross paths with the real Mabel Dodge Luhan. In the 1930s, Mabel Dodge invited her to come stay at her adobe home and salon in Taos. "She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools."
Cathedral City, 1940s-60s
Moving to the Coachella Valley, Christina first owned a small stone house in Palm Springs, reminiscent of the stone house her parents lived in on the Kansas frontier. The Araby cottage — still standing — was designed by a little-known architect, R. Lee Miller, the imaginative force behind some of Palm Springs' earthiest structures. Christina put up artists in Araby, then moved further down Highway 111 to Cathedral City — the poor relation of posh Palm Springs.
In the days before development, Cathedral City had the most expansive views — all the way to San Gorgonio and the little San Bernardinos. Rents were cheaper here, too. Cheap digs and big vistas played a part in the town's appeal to artists.
She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools...."
Christina's Final Years
In the last decade of her life, Christina Lillian moved to Claremont, California, to be near a relative. She died there in 1976. The little colony in Cathedral City Cove was forgotten until recently, as art collectors and scholars begin to rediscover Agnes Pelton. With the interest in Pelton, her free-spirited neighbors are beginning to peek from the shadows.
Still, much about the cove artists remains a mystery. We await the discovery of a journal, letters, or a witness to tell us the bigger story of Christina Lillian's New World Order."
Rest in Peace...
~Linda (48291572)
Miss Lillian was born in Lindsborg, Kansas, January 21, 1888, on a farm south of town owned by her parents John and Anna Lillian.
She lived most of her life in southern California, in the Palm Springs area, where she owned and operated the "Svenska" bungalows site in Cathedral City, California. After retirement she moved to Claremont, California and remained physically active and participating in the community.
Surviving are a brother, Elmer Lillian, Hartford, Kansas, nieces and nephews.
**
See the fascinating 2019 KCET PBS article about her and her Cathedral City female artists' colony, by Ann Japanga
"The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists"
By Ann Japenga, July 9, 2019
Christina was a wealthy dress designer to Hollywood, who was able to retire at age 35. She was of Swedish descent, and grew up in a Swedish speaking, enclave in Kansas. Exerpts from the article:
"...Born in 1888, she grew up in the plain little towns of Salina and Lindsborg, Kansas, which may be why she was later drawn to the plain little town of Cathedral City: It felt familiar. The future costume designer kept busy making clothes for her six siblings — dresses for her sisters, shirts for her brothers.
"Everybody spoke Swedish in these places," Lindquist says. "And when Christina was a teenager she declared: 'This Swedish peoples' settlement is too small. I'm going to Hollywood. And I'm going to make gowns for the movies.'"
Saving up money from a receptionist job, Christina left Kansas after her father's death in 1915. She paid her own way to Hollywood, where — as promised — she became a successful gown designer, making costumes for films featuring Greta Garbo, among others. As part of her metamorphosis she dropped Emma and became Christina.
"She declared she was never going to marry, not going to meet a man's demands," says Sharon. "She was not going to raise a carnival." Carnival was Christina's term for children and family.
Like Mabel Dodge in Santa Fe, Christina was seeking "a new world plan." The ingredients included communal living, immersion in nature, study of metaphysics and spiritual pursuits. A cornerstone of this new world was art. While Christina was an artist herself — she made constructions from cast-off tin and called them Taos Tintypes — she poured most of her energy into encouraging and housing her fellow artists.
Her fascination was cemented when she took a painting class with Hans Hoffman, the foremost teacher of abstract expressionism, in the 1930s. At the end of her class notes, Christina typed a personal addendum. "It was the last day of class. Hans Hoffman was sitting out in the sun. I went out to tell him goodbye. I said — You have given me enough to last my lifetime...."
Santa Fe, 1930s
After living in San Francisco and Hollywood, Christina's boho yearnings took her to Arizona and on to Santa Fe in the 1920s. "She bought a 1927 Studebaker, and she traveled out into the Arizona desert," says Lindquist. "She wanted to see if she could be a friend to the Apaches."
The Swedish rebel from Kansas puttered around the Arizona outback, offering rides to Indians. She found one man who had been out hunting and was trudging along with a stag across his shoulders. When the man declined her offer of a ride, Christina followed him until he finally gave in to fatigue and laid the carcass across the fender.
Of course, Christina would inevitably cross paths with the real Mabel Dodge Luhan. In the 1930s, Mabel Dodge invited her to come stay at her adobe home and salon in Taos. "She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools."
Cathedral City, 1940s-60s
Moving to the Coachella Valley, Christina first owned a small stone house in Palm Springs, reminiscent of the stone house her parents lived in on the Kansas frontier. The Araby cottage — still standing — was designed by a little-known architect, R. Lee Miller, the imaginative force behind some of Palm Springs' earthiest structures. Christina put up artists in Araby, then moved further down Highway 111 to Cathedral City — the poor relation of posh Palm Springs.
In the days before development, Cathedral City had the most expansive views — all the way to San Gorgonio and the little San Bernardinos. Rents were cheaper here, too. Cheap digs and big vistas played a part in the town's appeal to artists.
She lived in the main house with Georgia O'Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence and [his wife] Frieda and other visitors," Lindquist says. "Georgia O'Keeffe gave her some tools that she had collected for printmaking, and so, before she died, she gave me the tools...."
Christina's Final Years
In the last decade of her life, Christina Lillian moved to Claremont, California, to be near a relative. She died there in 1976. The little colony in Cathedral City Cove was forgotten until recently, as art collectors and scholars begin to rediscover Agnes Pelton. With the interest in Pelton, her free-spirited neighbors are beginning to peek from the shadows.
Still, much about the cove artists remains a mystery. We await the discovery of a journal, letters, or a witness to tell us the bigger story of Christina Lillian's New World Order."
Rest in Peace...
~Linda (48291572)
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