Anna Liebner

Anna was a sweet, soft-spoken, dainty woman with impeccable taste in clothes and home furnishings that featured highly polished mahogany woodwork. She was born in London, England, in 1894, emigrated to the U.S., both parents died when she was young, so she was sent to an orphanage until she reached age 16. Bruno Liebner's parents took Anna into their home and two years later she married Alvin Lawton, who died in 1938.

My grandfather and Anna married and made their home in a small white two-story house in Wauwatosa (64th & Vliet streets) where they had a backyard that featured lush gardens, complete with coy pond (which loved to play around), and an enclosed porch called a "breezeway" where we could relax and enjoy the fragrant smells of the flowers and play without being hasseled by the mosquitoes and flies.

She was my grandma until I reached 10 years old, when she passed away. Anna met my next grandmother, Anita Klein, when she visited a Waukesha spa for treatments. They became friends.