Astrid Ellen Irene Wendth-King

1912 - 1998

Astrid Wendth King, a pianist and choir director, taught music at two Seventh-day Adventist colleges, two academies, and an elementary school. Following the death of her husband, she studied nursing and then taught it for over a decade.

Astrid was born in New York, N.Y., the fourth of ten children born to Anna Sofia Granbacka and Julius Jonsson Wendth, who had been born in Finland and Sweden, respectively. She attended and graduated from Union Springs Academy in New York State and Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts. In 1933 she married Willis Lorenzo King, who had also attended USA and AUC and graduated from the latter in 1932 as president of the senior class.

The Kings started their careers at USA and then taught at Adelphian Academy in Michigan prior to teaching at Emmanuel Missionary College, now Andrews University, from 1942 to 1946. Astrid taught piano and directed the choir at both academies and was an instructor in piano and school music at EMC.

By the time of their employment at EMC and their return to AUC as teachers in 1946, he had completed an M.A. from Clark University, and she had earned a B.Mus.Ed. at Northwestern University. She completed an M.A. in church music at Boston University in 1955, and he later completed a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in Urbana.

When Willis died in 1964, they were residing in California, where he had been teaching at Loma Linda University for four years, and she was teaching at Glendale Adventist Elementary School. Following his death, Astrid enrolled in the nursing program at California State College at Los Angeles.

After completing a degree in nursing, she taught at the Loma Linda University School of Nursing for eleven years. She was residing in Redlands, California, at the time of her death at age 86.

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Astrid Wendth King Obituary, Andrews University Focus, Summer 1998, 29; 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census Records. Atlantic Union Gleaner: 19 July 1933, 8 (marriage); 17 June 1937, 4 (USA); 30 August 1946, 5 (AUC appointment); 27 June 1955, 7 (Astrid's MA); 9 November 1964, 11 (Willis Lorenzo Wendth obituary). Julius Wendth One World Tree, Ancestory.com; Anna Sophia Wendth obituary, Pacific Union Recorder, 13 19 February 1962.