10th Finglish trip July 2010 #1
Lillian Lehto is a retired teacher and librarian. She resides in Birmingham, Michigan, with her husband Paul, a retired school administrator. Lillian graduated from the Lutheran Bible Institute and from Suomi College. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from Oakland University and a minor in Library Science from the University of Michigan.
From 1984 to 1994, Lillian Lehto edited and published a magazine title Fennophile: A Magazine by and for Those Who Love Finland. In 1986 Lillian Lehto published a book, A Dictionary of American Finnish Dialect, which consists of words that she learned in her Finnish American community in Michigan´s Upper Peninsula.
In 2010 she published poems by Eelu Kiviranta, A Rascal's Craft: Musings of a Finnish American Immigrant, poems that describes Eelu´s feelings about departing the old country and establishing a new home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Eelu Kiviranta is Lillian´s grandfather. He was born Eliel Kiviranta in Oulainen, Finland. He married Kaisa Vehkaperä from Haukipudas, north of Oulu. In 1901 they travelled to the U.S and settled in the Michigan´s Upper Peninsula. Eelu worked in a mine and subsequently, Eelu and Kaisa bought a farm in Nisula, Michigan, and kept a dairy herd.
Next Steve Lehto Farmington Hills Michigan USA
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