PICAYUNE —
Sigurlaug Einarsdottir’s first encounter with her future husband Wilber Stewart was over the phone from her father's bakery in Iceland where Wilber was stationed in WWII.
Einarsdottir, known to locals as Lilla Stewart, said, "One of the girls working in the bakery was on the phone with her soldier sweetheart and at the end of the call the phone line was not disconnected from the army base. Wilber was the base phone operator I finally spoke to in order to get the line at the bakery reconnected for use. Our first conversation was me letting him have it for not doing his job."
The sixteen-year-old Einarsdottir spoke to the phone operator off and on for three weeks before agreeing to meet him in person. When they met, she knew she was in love.
"It was not a popular thing to do, at that time, to date a military man. People looked at us with prejudice because Icelanders are not a people of military conflict. But, my parents welcomed the military soldiers into our home. They came to know many through the bakery," she says.
There was even an article about her family's relationship to the soldiers in the November 1945 "National Geographic" publication. She appeared in a photo with her parents, brother and several soldiers in a casual setting around their Christmas tree. Wilber Stewart was one of the soldiers pictured.
The Stewarts married in Iceland and had their first child, Jon. Lilla was pregnant with her second child when the young family journeyed to the United States. She says,"Leaving my family was very hard. I was close to my family and was the only daughter. But I loved my husband and knew my place was with him."
Life in Mississippi was quite a culture shock for the barely 20 year old mother of two. She says, "The biggest change for me in coming to Picayune in the 1940s was the outside bathroom and having to wash diapers outside in a washpot."
Her mother-in-law took her under her wing and taught her the basics of cooking and sewing clothes. Lilla was used to needlework and embroidery but had never sewn clothing until she came to Picayune.
She laughed as she recalled how her good intentions to help with housework backfired one day while her mother-in-law went into town to do family shopping. "I was going to mop the floors and keep an eye on the peas which she put in a pressure cooker before she left. I had never seen anything like a pressure cooker before, so you can imagine the mess when I took off the lid to check the peas. They were everywhere from ceiling to floor. I had more cleaning to do then I started with."
Stewart went on to excel in her housekeeping duties, joined the church and became an integral part of the community. She worked for and was granted her American citizenship.
She said, "This whole community just opened their arms to me and embraced me. Not once was I ever called a Foreigner or looked down on. I have always felt at home in Picayune.
In 1960 Stewart began her 25 year career in banking when she took a job at the Bank of Picayune which was later purchased by Hancock Bank. While there, she became a mentor and surrogate mother to young female employees just as her mother-in-law had been for her.
Branch manager at the Picayune Northside Branch, Frieda Dobson, said, “Lilla was at the bank when I started in November of 1976. She was over the savings department. I trained to be her assistant and she became so much more than my mentor in my career field. She became my second mama to me. She helped me not only with learning the ins and outs of banking, she taught me so much about life. She was always just a guardian angel to me.
She is just a sweet lovely, loving person. I thank her dearly for her guidance and love while we worked together. She was a mentor and inspiration. I give her guidance the credit for me having been able to stay at the bank as long as I have.”
She has always remained close to her relatives in Iceland while raising her four children, Jon, Martha, Diane and Linda. She is also blessed with five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
Her daughter Linda Stewart said of her mother, "I have to say she had a true love for my Dad in that she left her home and family to come to a place completely different from where she was raised and to make a life and raise her family. She makes sure we all stay close just as she stayed close to her family in Iceland even though they were so far away."
Lifestyles
Related Photos
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Lilla Stewart looks over a photo album full of photos from her early days in Picayune. She said she has always felt part of this community and has never been singled out for her Icelandic heritage. Jodi Marze
Lilla Stewart: Iceland’s gift to Picayune
Picayune Item Super Seniors
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