Karl Alfred Gustafson
(Greta's father)

Karl Alfred was the second of seven children and the eldest son of Johan Agathon Gustafsson and Lovisa Andersdotter. Born Karl Alfrid Johansson on May 11, 1871, in Frinnaryd (Sweden), he later assumed his father's surname. Three younger brothers and a sister died before they turned five, two within a day of each other.

In 1881 Lovisa Andersdotter, Karl Alfred's mother, died from complications following a difficult childbirth; she was thirty-five years old. As Sweden's population grew and farms continued to fail, life became increasingly difficult for working-class families. Karl quit school early in order to find work, in the spring of 1887, Johan Agathon moved his family, including his second wife, Johanna Karlsdotter, and their two infant children, to Gotland Island.

The Gustafssons remained on the island until May 1891. By that time, Karl Alfred had ideas of his own and went to Stockholm. Men found employment loading and unloading ships, in the steel mills, cleaning streets, shoveling coal, or cutting lumber. It is not clear when Greta's parents first met. It is possible they were introduced during one of Karl Alfred's excursions to the mainland.

Karl Alfred, or Kalle as he was known to friends, was tall, slim, and possessed of an aristocratic face framed by short blond hair and deepset, somber eyes that belied his cheerful manner and good sense of humor.

The Karl Alfred Gustafson facts - summary

Karl Alfred's occupation always remained a subject of debate. One chronicler says he was ‘an impoverished sailor'. Others say he worked in the city sanitation department as a street sweeper, janitor, or ‘unskilled labourer'.

In fact his work history was not unlike that of other Smålanders who came to the capital  At first he briefly worked  with a master gardener, as a landscaper. He was taking care of trees and streets for the city. After this, Kalle worked as a butcher's assistant. It is said that  this was the only job he could find in Stockholm.

Karl in his 20s

Date of Death
June 1, 1920

Kalle's parents
Johan Agathon Gustafsson and Lovisa Andersdotter

Kalle's parents

Place of Death
Stockholm/Sweden

Course of Death
Nephritis (nefrit chronicus) This is a chronic inflammation of the kidneys.

Karl Alfred working as a butcher

His Children
Sven Alfred (1898), Alva Maria (1903), Greta Lovisa (1905)

His wife
Anna Lovisa Karlsson – they met in 1897 and married in 1898.

His Father
Johan Agathon Gustafsson

His Mother
Lovisa Andersdotter (died in 1881)

His Brother and Sisters
He had six brothers/sisters and also two half brothers and sisters.

The Karl Alfred Gustafson trivia

 Kalle was burried in a simple plot at Södra Skogskyrogåarden/Stockholm.

 After his death Greta get up in the night and run to his grave to see that he had not been buried alive.

 Kalle was the second of seven children.

  His brothers was David Gustafsson. Greta liked his uncle David very much and he even helped her a lot.

 Three younger brothers and a sister died before they turned five, two even within a day of each other.

 Karl Alfred never knew his paternal grandfather, Gustaf Adolf Gustafsson.

 His father's father died of “inflammation of the chest”, at the age of 44.

 His maternal grandfather, Anders Persson, also passed away before Karl Alfred was born.

 He succumbed to tuberculosis and left his widow, Lovisa Jaensdotter, a pauper.

  In 1881 Kalle's s mother, died. She died from complications following a childbirth. She was 35 years old.

  After Kalle's mother died, his father married a new woman. Her name was Johanna Karlsdotter.

  Kalle's father and and his stepmother also had  two children.

  Kalle was tall, slim, and had an aristocratic face. He had short blond hair and deep somber eyes.
      Friends said he had a cheerful manner and good sense of humor.

 Karl and Anna married on April of 1898.

 In 1898, they moved to Gotlandsgatan 4 in Södermalm/Stockholm.

 In late 1903, they moved to Blekingegatan 32 in Södermalm/Stockholm.

Source

The number one source for this Timeline is Karen Swenson's 1997 released Garbo biography Greta Garbo: A Life Apart. This is the best and most accurate book about Garbos-Life.

There's so much information in A Life Apart. Some of it is more subtle, correcting factual errors from other books and re-positioning popular myths. Unfortunately the book is only released in English-language.