Florence L. Alsberge; Retired Copy Editor

Retired radio and print copy editor Florence L. Alsberge of Newbury Park died Feb. 11. She was 105.

She was born Florence Lynam in Soquel to British parents in 1893. In 1896, the family moved to San Luis Obispo County, where Florence attended public school.

She received a bachelor of arts degree from Pacific Union College in 1918 and later taught Latin and accounting.

The year before, she had married Albert C. Hanson, and in 1920 the couple moved to Shanghai. He worked as secretary-treasurer of the East China Union and she as secretary to the director of the Union Mission.

They were there for three years until her husband grew ill. They returned to California and settled in Glendale. Her surviving family members say Alsberge always said she left her heart in China.

“I believe she did visit China one more time,” said her granddaughter Diane Spaeth. “She really loved China and the children and families there. She thought they were wonderful, warm people.”

Alsberge then worked as a copy editor and proofreader for a medical distributor, whose employees were all Seventh-day Adventists like herself.

In 1946, her marriage to Hanson ended, and she retired. In 1950, she was called to work for the Voice of Prophecy, a religious radio program that had just begun nationwide broadcasting. For almost a decade she proofread all the sermons, books and papers of H.M.S. Richards, who led the radio ministry.

In 1960, she married a longtime friend, dentist Edward W. Alsberge. She had never borne any children of her own, but loved her new family. “She married my grandfather and had an instant family and was very proud of it,” Spaeth said.

Florence Alsberge ultimately held every office eligible to women in their Glendale City Church.

Since 1982, she had resided at Ventura Estates in Newbury Park.

The family, which held a private service, suggested that flowers be donated to Ventura Estates. Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary in Thousand Oaks handled the arrangements.