The Chocolate Set

I was born in Deadwood, South Dakota on December 3, 1941. I finished the 7th grade in Belle Fourche South Dakota, then moved with my parents and two brothers to Pasco, Washington where I finished high school and a year at Columbia Basin College. I married Theodore A. Burton and moved to Pullman, Washington for three years at Washington State University (BA 1964). From there we went to the University of Alberta for two years before moving to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.

Campus riots and high inflation drove us to the country where we bought a subsistence farm on the Big Muddy River, learned to milk cows, butcher pigs, make bread, cheese, butter and raise bees, rabbits, cats, and horses.

I earned a Masters degree in Fine Arts and worked as a scientific illustrator and photographer for many years. I went back to school for a MFA in creative writing (1998). That spring we sold the farm and moved to Port Angeles, Washington. It is here that I finished The Chocolate Set. A second volume on the life of Klara Larsson is in progress. Along the way I traveled to many other countries and lived in Hungary, Spain, Italy and Japan. In my spare time I do Norwegian rosemaling, Swedish folk painting, and icon painting (primarily St. George).