Doris Lindberg

Doris Irene Lindberg, 99, a longtime resident of Superior, died February 25, 2023, at her daughter Barbara’s home in Goleta, California. She got “stranded” in California in early 2020 during the COVID Pandemic and was never able to return to her beloved home on Banks Avenue in South Superior. She made the best of the situation, spending her time reading countless books and enjoying reading to and playing cards and games with two of her great-grandchildren, Logan and Makaela.

Doris was born on April 25, 1923, in Blackduck, Minnesota, the youngest daughter of Dora (Price) and Samuel Lee. She often told stories about how much she enjoyed the year she attended the one-room school in Wilton, Minnesota. She came to Superior in June of 1939 to stay with her sister Theresa Stordahl and look after her niece Sharron. She then attended Cathedral High School and later worked at the Twin Ports Creamery during World War II. In 1945 she took a train alone to San Francisco to meet her future husband’s Navy ship returning from the South Pacific. While she waited for his ship to return, she worked at Bear Photography Studio and made life-long friends. As things sometimes happen, his ship never did come in to San Francisco so Doris took the train alone back to Wisconsin.

On March 9, 1946, Doris married that sailor, Kenneth Lindberg, at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Superior. A few years later in 1949 they bought their home on Banks Avenue in South Superior where Doris lived for the next 70 years.

Much of Doris’ life was spent volunteering in various capacities with the children of South Superior. She was a 4H leader for three years, worked as a Den Mother for the Boy Scouts for several years and was a Girl Scout leader for many troops across all age groups for over 50 years. During that time, she was also the Director of the Girl Scout Day Camp at Billings Park, took her scout troops on overnight camping trips to Camp Amni-Dowl and week-long primitive camping trips to Bemidji, MN and Gooseberry Falls State Park on the Northshore. Her scout troops were always involved in service projects to help those in need, sold hundreds of boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and learned valuable life-long skills such as first aid, childcare, and how to show appreciation to your teachers with an annual Tea in their honor. She was chosen as “Citizen of the Year” for Superior in 1976 in recognition of her volunteer work.

In 1975, Doris started working as a school assistant at Bryant School, first working in the kitchen, then in the lunchroom and on the playground, and finally in the copy room. She loved every minute of those 38 years, finally retiring at the age of 90.

She was a member of Bethel Lutheran Church for over 50 years where she helped organize the church library and taught Sunday School for over twenty years.

When she wasn’t working or volunteering, she enjoyed reading, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and working in her flower garden, especially with her peonies and her Alberta roses. Her pink and purple dining room table was the neighborhood gathering place for family and friends for a coffee or a tea and maybe a Girl Scout cookie or two. There was always a place for one more around that table. Her Senior Girl Scouts have a lot of stories to tell about what they learned around that table!

Family was very important to Doris. Even though her siblings lived in many places across the country, Doris kept in weekly contact with them. When they passed away, she kept in contact with their children and grandchildren. She flew to California each Christmas from 1977 onward to spend the holidays with her family. This past Christmas she enjoyed a beautiful Goleta, California day on the patio surrounded by her daughters, her grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Preceding her in death were her husband, Kenneth; son, James R Lindberg; sisters, Dorothy Maunula, Rose Marie Gorman, Margaret Rognlien, and Theresa Stordahl; brothers, Phillip J. Lee, Samuel J. Lee, and Robert “Bobbie” Lee; brothers-in-law, Wayno Maunula, John Gorman, Milton Rognlien, and Roland Stordahl, and sisters-in-law, Connie Lee, and Penny Lee.

Survivors include her two daughters, Barbara Little of Goleta, CA and Jolayne Lindberg of Oconomowoc, WI; daughter-in-law, Carol Lindberg of Superior; grandchildren, Jonathon (Erika) Little of Rochester, NY, Danelle (Danny) Muhr and Laura Little (Tyler Geck) of Goleta, CA; and great grandchildren, Emma and Tessa Little of Rochester, and Logan and Makaela Muhr of Goleta; several nieces, nephews, and cousins; her beloved neighbors; friends of all ages; and her faithful California caregivers Rosa, Maria, and Cynthia, and the VNA nurses Laura and Carlos.

Doris was a loyal friend, a good neighbor, a devoted mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She will be dearly missed and forever remembered.

“And when my life on earth is done

It will be my final plea:

Let someone, somewhere think or say,

‘You made a difference to me.’ Helen Bush

A Celebration of Life will be held on Wednesday, June 28th from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Downs Funeral Home, 1617 N 19th Street, Superior. A time of reflection is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery at a later date.

If anyone wishes to give a memorial the family would suggest VNA Health, Santa Barbara County nonprofit provider of comprehensive in-home healthcare, helping patients and their families…live well at home…wherever they reside and call home. (VNA Health Corporate and Foundation Offices, 509 East Montecito Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101) or to the family to be used to set up a scholarship for a Superior High School graduate that is planning to go to college to major in education.

To leave an online condolence, please visit www.downsfh.com.