Camilla Hall

On March 24, 1945, Camilla Christine Hall was born in Saint Peter, Minnesota. Both her parents, George Fridolph Hall (1908–2000) and Lorena (Daeschner) Hall (1911–1995), were academics with positions at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter from 1938 to 1952. In addition, her father was a minister in the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church and later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Camilla Hall was the only surviving child of four. Firstborn son Terry died of congenital heart disease in 1948; Peter died in 1951, and Nan died in 1962, both of a congenital kidney disease. The family seemed burdened by grief. In 1952, the Hall family moved to what is now Tanzania in East Africa. George and Lorena Hall taught in schools and did mission work, while Camilla and Nan played with the native children. In 1954, when Camilla was nine, the family returned to Saint Peter because of seven-year-old Nan's poor health. While Camilla attended elementary school in Minnesota and lived with relatives, her birth family moved to Montclair, New Jersey. In Minnesota, Hall attended Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where she was involved in many activities. The 1963 Washburn Yearbook states, "Candy was a member of Blue Tri, Class Play, Poplars Staff, Quill Club, Forensics, Pep Club, and Hall of Fame". Blue Tri club was an organization that encouraged Christian ideals and put together service projects. In addition, Camilla Hall was voted class clown in high school. In 1963, she graduated from Washburn High School. ==Education==

Hall attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. She transferred to the University of Minnesota after her freshman year. On June 10, 1967, Hall graduated with a humanities degree. ==Post-college==

After graduation, Hall moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where she started as a caseworker for social services in St. Louis County. In June 1968, Hall returned to Minneapolis, where she was a caseworker for the Hennepin County, Minnesota welfare office. In 1968, Hall was 23 years old. She carefully monitored the political situation in America, including the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where there was so much violence. She was active in the peace movement and food boycotts, including the Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Despite Hall's participating in political activities, urging social change, and working to aid individuals and families, her mother could see that Camilla became dissatisfied with her work. ==Move to California==

In November 1969, Hall moved to Topanga, a northern suburb of Los Angeles, California. Although Hall didn't express dissatisfaction at being an artist, she decided to move again. Hall moved to Berkeley in northern California in February 1971, which had become a center of political activism and social movements. In May 1971, Hall moved into an apartment complex on Channing Way where she met Patricia Soltysik. In Berkeley, Hall continued being politically active. She participated in the People's Park reoccupation during the summer of 1972, following the shootings there the year before. She and Soltysik became involved with the Venceremos prison outreach project, through which they became associates of two white men, Russ Little and Willie Wolfe, who were also assisting in prisoner outreach. In October 1972, Hall traveled to Europe. She stayed with friends while she traveled for three months. Once she returned to California, she continued being politically active. Through her association with Soltysik, Little, and Wolfe, she became a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a small, radical leftist group. Joe Remiro and Thero Wheeler trained the other members in handling weapons and explosives. Remiro was a veteran of Vietnam. The SLA gained notoriety in November 1973 by claiming credit for the assassination of Marcus Foster, Superintendent of the Oakland Public Schools and the first black to be superintendent of any major city's school district. Three "soldiers" also wounded his deputy. In January 1974 the SLA base was moved to Concord, California, where Nancy Ling Perry rented a house under an assumed name. Russ Little and Joe Remiro were arrested after a police stop and confrontation, convicted and sentenced to prison. In February 1974 the SLA kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst. They indoctrinated her and she said she chose to join them. Hall and Hearst were identified from security camera images as participants in the April 15, 1974, armed robbery of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. Two civilians were shot during the robbery. ==LA shootout==

The police kept up pressure on the group, which moved to a house in Los Angeles. There Hall died in a shootout (May 17, 1974) with police in which five other SLA members also died. ==Funeral==

Hall's parents held a funeral for their daughter on May 23, 1974, at St. John's Lutheran Church, in Lincolnwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where he was pastor. Seven of his fellow Lutheran ministers conducted the service. Camilla Hall's name was not mentioned. Her ashes were buried on August 19, 1974, in a small country graveyard where her late siblings were buried, who each died before she was 16. Her parents also have plots there. ==References==