Sally Olsen (10 April 1912 – 12 April 2006) was a Norwegian-born American social worker and missionary. She was a pioneer of evangelical and social work for criminals and for orphans and neglected children in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
,
Sally Olsen was born in
Bergen
Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...
, Norway. She was the eldest of four girls. Her father died when she was five years old. In 1929, at age seventeen, Olsen and her family moved to the United States, where they first settled in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. Olsen attended the Bible school of Philadelphia Church in the
Andersonville neighborhood of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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where she trained for the ministry and was ordained a minister.
Olsen was a pioneer in social work for criminals in
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
,
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
. In 1952, she founded ''Sarons Rose'', a day center mission for children with one or both parents in prison. She also served unofficially in the role of an unofficial prison chaplain in San Juan where she was nicknamed the Angel of Prisoners (''El Angel de los Presos'').
Her life was chronicled by
Max Manus in 1975 and by E. Mentzen in 1987.
References
Further reading
*Mentzen, Av Egil (1987) ''Men Gud Ga Vekst: Jubileumsboken om Sarons Rose Sally Olsen - fangenes engel pa Puerto Rico'' (Baksidebilde)
*Manus, Max (1975) ''Sally Olsen : Fangenes engel i Puerto Rico'' (Oslo: Luther Forlag)
1912 births
2006 deaths
People from San Juan, Puerto Rico
American Pentecostal pastors
American Pentecostal missionaries
Female Christian missionaries
American social workers
Norwegian emigrants to the United States
Norwegian Pentecostal missionaries
Protestant missionaries in Puerto Rico
20th-century American clergy
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