Carl Sandburg's granddaughter, Paula Steichen Polega, dies in Hendersonville at 80

The youngest person to live at the world famous poet and historian Carl Sandburg's Connemara in Flat Rock, now known as the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, has died.

Paula Steichen Polega, one of two Sandburg grandchildren, died Jan. 13 at the age of 80. According to her obituary by Shuler Funeral Home, Polega died with her son, Birch, by her side at her Hendersonville home after a yearlong battle with colon cancer.

Polly Angelakis, the superintendent at the Carl Sandburg Home, said she and her staff spent a lot of time with Polega, who visited her former home frequently. Like her grandfather, Polega was also a writer, and her book "My Connemara," which is sold at the Carl Sandburg Home park store, talks about when she lived on the farm between 1945-1952.

"It was a privilege to know Paula and to see Connemara through her eyes, both through her book, 'My Connemara,' and through numerous conversations and walks with her over the years," Angelakis said. "Our staff, volunteers, and partners will miss her dearly. We all extend our deepest condolences to her family."

Polega was born in Chicago in 1943 to Helga Sandburg Crile and Joseph Thoman. Crile was the youngest of three Sandburg daughters and the only one to marry. The couple had two children, John Carl and Paula, and after they divorced, Crile moved to Connemara in 1945.

Sandburg, who rose to fame as a Lincoln biographer, poet, social activist and Pulitzer Prize winner, was overjoyed. According to the National Park Service website, Sandburg said in a letter to a friend, "The grandchildren were almost too good to be true. And a fellow wonders what time will bring. They have loveliness and rare lights and shake the house with their promises.”

In 1946 when she was still 2, her grandfather wrote this poem for her:

This is a part of a poem Carl Sandburg wrote for her when she was 2 in 1946:

The seven years she spent at Connemara were years she always cherished, especially spending time with Sandburg, who she called "Buppong."

In "My Connemara," Polega wrote, "So it was, I grew to regard Connemara and all that lived on her rolling land and mountainsides in a personal way. I was devoted to her and felt her promises: delight in the early morning and in the sun hot on one's back; in the feeling of power seeing Buppong (grandpa) lift the oaken chair high over his head and look beyond the pines to the mountains blue in the distance; in the newborn creatures and generous earth. She seemed to speak of a faith in the cycles of nature, and in the infinite capabilities of the human mind and heart. I once turned to Gramma in whom I had immense trust, and asked her how it could ever be bearable to live elsewhere."

After spending her childhood in Flat Rock, Polega moved to Washington, D.C., in 1952 and later to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1972, she returned to Henderson County, moving to Tuxedo and then eventually to her home in Hendersonville, where she spent the rest of her life.

Polega had two children — a daughter, Sky, and a son, Birch. Sky Polega, a 1994 Hendersonville High graduate, died at the age of 25 in 2002 after a medical emergency while on an adventure trip in the Alaskan wilderness. According to a past Times-News article, it was determined that she had a hemorrhage near the base of her brain and later died after five days in a coma.

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Paula Polega is survived by her son, Birch Polega; her brother, Dr. John Steichen (and his wife, Liz); her half-sister Char Campbell (and her husband Evan). She was preceded in death by her daughter, Sky; her husband of 45 years, Stanley and her half-brother, Greg Thoman.

According to Shuler Funeral Home, a private memorial service will be held in the spring.

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Carl Sandburg's only granddaughter dies at 80 in Hendersonville