Obituary: Angie Hyde Bjorkland

Angie Hyde Bjorklund was a force of nature all her life. Born in 1926, Angie was the daughter of Robert Hyde and Lydia Tonetti Hyde of Palisades. In the mid 1930s Bobby and Lydia parted ways and he moved to Santa Barbara. Lydia died in 1941, leaving Angie and her brothers Joe and Francy to be brought up in the Pirates’ Lair by their grandmother Mrs. Tonetti and James the butler.

At 17, after graduating from Nyack High School, Angie was given a truck and used it to start her own trucking business. Later she spent six months in England learning how to thatch roofs. When she came back to Palisades, she started to build a stone house on Woods Road. It was too difficult to finish alone, so she went to California to work as a riveter. There she met Lloyd Bjorklund, a handsome Swede whom she married and brought home to help her finish the house. When it burned down, they went to work and rebuilt it.

Her next move was back to California, where her father lived. She and Lloyd built two more stone houses, settling in the last one and living a Bohemian lifestyle in the Santa Barbara area. She and Lloyd had four children, Eric, Robert, Susy and Gail.

Angie worked with raw wool, carding, spinning, dyeing, and knitting the yarn into hats that became famous. She later taught these crafts at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After a long and happy life, she died on March 3 at the nursing home where she was living, surrounded by her family. On March 29 a tremendous party at the Bjorklund Ranch in Santa Barbara celebrated Angie’s life.