My uncle Sture Albin Nelson, brother of my grandmother Clara Amelia (Nelson) Erickson when he was serving with the Navy in 1917 - 1919.

Photograph by Helmer Erick Olaf Erickson at his "Erickson Studio" in Wilton, North Dakota.

Sture was born in Lanskrona, Sweden on May 2nd, 1896. He and his family came to the states in 1903. He grew up along with his sister, Clara Amelia (Erickson) and brothers August Valentine, Anton Tony, Albert "Bob" William and his parents Gerda (Miljander) and Anders Nelson on their farm in Painted Woods, North Dakota.

On January 4th, 1918 Sture enlisted in the US Navy and served in the Atlantic during the war. He was honorably discharged on October 2nd, 1919. After the war Sture trained as an electrician and eventually worked in the photography field.

Sture married Roma Wirt Summers on September 27th, 1930 in Toledo, Ohio and they moved to Los Angeles in 1936.Sture and Roma have four children (Robert Andrew, Wirt, Jean (Fort) and Jacqueline Nelson) and one stepdaughter (Pamela McKenzie). Robert Andrew Nelson's children are Kelly, Jeffery and Wesley, Wirt Nelson's children are Kristin, Scott, Kenneth and Mathew. Jean (Fort) Nelson's children are Mark, Thor and Robert. Pamela McKenzie's children are Linda, Nancy and Suzanne.

I recall Sture well from when I was growing up as a sweet, kind man and extremely tall to me as a kid. My father Ernest Anders Erickson admired Sture a lot and visited him and Roma whenever he could once he moved out to Los Angeles in the 1950s.

Sture passed on July 6th, 1974 and was laid to rest in The National Veterans Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

The Nelson Family history is below, written by my grandmother, Sture's younger sister, Clara Amelia (Nelson) Erickson.