As a Georgia resident for more than 40 years and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Bavarian-born Elfriede Wilson felt she belonged here. Still, she cherished the language, folk music and religious traditions of her native country, and they gave a distinctly Germanic flavor to her life.
The most obvious indicator of her background was her 30-year participation in the Atlanta Sangerkreis, a Gwinnett County-based singing group that performs at churches, nursing homes and cultural festivals throughout the year. Dressed in a dirndl, Wilson would join in singing German folk music for appreciative audiences.
“Elfriede was instrumental in getting the Atlanta Sangerkreis started in the early 1980s,” said Ruth Lutz of Tucker, the group’s president. “She knew many German folk songs from memory, and not just the chorus or first verse, but all verses.”
Lutz said Wilson’s dedication and dependability were invaluable to the group. “Until she got sick last year,” Lutz said, “Elfriede could always be relied upon at rehearsals and performances, where her strong, confident voice was a rock.”
Elfriede Birkenbach Wilson, 67, of Lawrenceville died Jan. 3 at Gwinnett Medical Center of complications from cancer. A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Midtown Atlanta. Advantage Funeral Home, Lilburn, is in charge of arrangements.
Wilson, who grew up in Nuremberg, Germany, came to live in the United States in 1969 as the wife of a U.S. serviceman and the mother of two young daughters. However, the marriage dissolved the following year, and to make ends meet she took a job with a Shoney’s restaurant in Atlanta.
Though she had a limited command of English at the time, the restaurant manager, Gordon Wilson, recognized her as a hard worker who got on well with others. A few months later, after she had returned to Germany to care for her mother, he missed her so much that he wrote her a letter asking her to come back to Atlanta and marry him, said her daughter, Sandra Brown of Monroe.
She accepted his proposal, and they were wed in October 1971. Two years later, he adopted her two daughters.
Later, Elfriede Wilson went to work for Efka of America, which sells German-made industrial sewing-machine motors to U.S. firms. For 24 years she was a translator of Efka’s communications with German suppliers and had other administrative duties.
She was a devout member of the German Church of Atlanta, which meets Sundays at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. The Rev. Andrea Rauch, pastor of the German church, said Wilson made people feel welcome there.
“Hospitality was one of Elfriede’s strengths,” Rauch said. “She seemed to know everybody in Atlanta’s German community, and she helped bring them together.”
Rauch said Wilson also was a wonderful baker of German cakes, cookies and pastries. “When the church was having a special event,” Rauch said, “people would ask, ‘Will Elfriede be there?’ — meaning, ‘Is she cooking for the event?’”
Also surviving are her husband, Gordon Wilson; another daughter, Jane Nicholas of Denver; a stepdaughter, Sarah Prejeant of Cumming; a stepson, William Wilson of Alpharetta; and a brother, Erich Birkenbach of Nuremberg, Germany.
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