The Voice That Enchanted Riverside: Elsie Younggren-Carlstrom's Musical Legacy

In late 1915, John Younggren moved his family from Iowa to Riverside, California. He came to Riverside to escape the cold Midwest winters and to join family friends who had already settled there. John's family consisted of his wife, Selma, and fifteen-year-old Elsie Younggren. John bought a house at 4278 Fifth Street.

Elsie was born on May 6, 1900, at Pilot Mound, Iowa, the youngest of five children of Fred and Lydia Younggren. Lydia died when Elsie was an infant, and Fred worked and traveled for the railroad. So, his brother, John, and his wife, Selma, took the children in and raised them as their own. Elsie was confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran Church at Boxholm, Iowa, receiving catechism instruction in the Swedish language.

Upon arrival in Riverside, the family joined Eden Lutheran Church, where Pastor Carl Hemborg served. He had been their pastor earlier in Iowa. The church played a significant role in Elsie's future.

Elsie had a love of music and, importantly, talent. Miss Cora Merry soon invited her to join the Glee Club at the Riverside Girls High School, as did Olive Carlson, the organist and choir director at Eden Lutheran. For the 1916 Easter Service on Mount Rubidoux, Elsie sang in the community choir under the direction of Cora Merry. This marked the beginning of a long association with events on the mountain. In 1917, she sang an aria in an opera performed by the Girls' Glee Club to raise funds for war relief. The newspaper raved that her performance was "…the gem of the evening. No sweeter voice has ever been heard in a home talent production in this city."

By 1918, her singing ability was well known, and she was asked to sing during the lunch hour in the Spanish Patio at the Glenwood Mission Inn. The following year, Frank Miller asked her to be the soloist at the Mission Inn, where she sang both at lunch and in the evening in the Cloister Music Room. Elsie was often accompanied on either the organ or piano by Newell Parker. This partnership extended to events on Mount Rubidoux for Easter and Armistice Day services.

Francis Borton, longtime curator at the Mission Inn, in 1922 published a new edition of his book of poems, The Call of California. One of his poems was "When Elsie Sings."

When Elsie sings, the shadowed room
Becomes a bower of wild-rose bloom;
We hear faint whisperings of trees,
The mellow hum of golden bees,
The glad birds warbling in the glen,-
It’s Springtime in our hearts again
When Elsie sings.

When her pure voice is lifted high
We see the white clouds sailing by,
The joyous lark and bobolink
In raptures by the river’s brink,
And lovers straying hand in hand
Through the green lanes of fairyland, - 
When Elsie sings.

Her voice, like some rare golden key,
Unlocks the gates of memory:
Till precious things from vanished years
Shine through a mist of sudden tears,-
The secret treasures of the heart,
Life’s hidden, hallowed, better part,
When Elsie sings.

Dear faces smile on us again;-
We hear the ramp of marching men;-
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise,
Float up from old plantation days,-
While Afton water ripples clear
And Bonnie Doon draws wondrous near,-
As Elsie sings. 

It makes the grieving heart rejoice
To hear the sweet lift of her voice,
Hope’s star beams with a brighter ray,
And Heaven seems less far away,-
We almost see before our eyes
The shining hills of Paradise,
When Elsie sings.

On Sept. 7, 1922, Elsie Younggren set sail from New York, traveling to Munich, Germany, to study voice. Many in Riverside, including Frank Miller and opera singer Marcella Craft, had encouraged her to study abroad. Elsie engaged in intense training in voice and daily practice. While in Munich, Marcella Craft heard her sing and wrote to Frank Miller that Elsie's "voice is most beautiful…There is a rare quality about it."

Elsie returned to Riverside at the end of 1923 and in January performed a recital in the Music Room at the Mission Inn. She again took up her role as the soloist at the Inn. For the 1925 Sunrise Easter Service on Mount Rubidoux, Elsie acted as soloist. She continued to sing for this service every year through 1939, except for the years 1933 and 1936.

On Dec. 13, 1925, the citizens of Riverside honored Frank A. Miller, with the dedication of the Peace Tower and Friendship Bridge on Mount Rubidoux. The soloist for this occasion was Miss Elsie Younggren. She sang "Ave Maria," "My Task," and "The End of a Perfect Day," the song written by Carrie Jacobs Bond while at the Mission Inn after a trip up Mount Rubidoux.

Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus and Princess Louise of Sweden visited the Mission Inn on July 22, 1926. A banquet was held in their honor in the Spanish Patio. Before the meal, the guests passed through the Music Room, where Elsie Younggren entertained them. She sang in Swedish a composition that had been written years before by the prince's father, the King. The prince asked Frank Miller to introduce her, and when she was called over, the prince complimented her on her solo.

Eden Lutheran Church was without a pastor in 1928 and engaged a seminary student from Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois, to serve as an intern pastor. His name was Clarence Carlstrom. A family story recounts that Elsie caught Clarence's attention by dropping a large check in a Sunday evening service offering.

Elsie Younggren and Clarence Carlstrom were married on Dec. 12, 1928, in the Music Room of the Mission Inn. Elsie, from that time, used as her professional name, Elsie Younggren-Carlstrom. Clarence returned to Augustana Seminary in the fall of 1930, but Elsie remained with the Younggren family in Riverside. Clarence graduated in June 1931 and was called to Palm Valley Lutheran Church near Round Rock, Texas. This was during the Depression, and the congregation in Texas was very poor. Elsie split her time between Texas and Riverside to keep her position as soloist at the Mission Inn. Their first son, Gerard, was born in Riverside in December 1929, and their second son, John, was born in February 1932, also in Riverside. The third son, Theodore, was born in May 1933 in Austin, Texas. As one of their sons related, during those years, Elsie spent a great deal of time on the railroad traveling to and from Riverside.

On April 9, 1939, Elsie Younggren-Carlstrom made her last trip up Mount Rubidoux to sing for the Thirty-first Annual Sunrise Easter Service. She sang two arias for this service, "Hosanna" and "Fear Ye Not." The service that year was broadcast to 107 radio stations nationwide over the Mutual Broadcast System. Elsie's husband and three sons were able to listen to the service on a San Francisco radio station while their wife and mother was hundreds of miles away on the top of Mount Rubidoux. The family has a recording of this radio broadcast.

In 1935, Pastor Carlstrom accepted a call to a congregation near Oakland and in 1937 to Palo Alto. In the following years, he served in Fresno, Waukegan, Illinois, and finally in Antioch, California. Pastor Clarence Carlstrom died suddenly of a heart attack on Jan. 17, 1955. Elsie Younggren-Carlstrom returned to Palo Alto, where they had previously purchased a home. She lived there until she died in October 1965. The Riverside paper recounted: "Many longtime Riversiders will recall her beautiful voice when she was soloist at the Mission Inn in the day when musical programs were regular events there for townspeople and guests at the famous hotel."

Elsie Younggren-Carlstrom is one of the many early women chronicled in the new publication of the Riverside Historical Society titled Anthology of Women in Riverside, California 1870-1970. The book will be released today at the annual RHS Book Fair and Lecture. This year, the Book Fair and Talk will take place at City Hall in downtown Riverside, starting at 11 a.m.

Elsie's story will also be part of the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Peace Tower this December, sponsored by the Friends of Mt. Rubidoux and the Mission Inn Foundation. Watch for more details on this event.