Margit Lagerheim-Romare was an author and a journalist. She was best-known for being a ballad writer but she also wrote radio-programmes and causerie-style columns.
Margit Lagerheim-Romare was born in Stockholm in 1898. Her father, Gustaf Lagerheim, was a professor of botany and became famous for being one of the discoverers of pollen analysis. Margit Lagerheim-Romare’s mother Berthe had been born in England and her parents had met each other in Ecuador. Although they had five children together only Margit Lagerheim-Romare and her older sister Karin survived into adulthood.
When she was young Margit Lagerheim-Romare took both violin and piano lessons as she intended to become a musician. Despite this, she ended up in journalism. She married Albert Romare in 1920 and the following year their son Lennart was born. He sadly died when he was four. During the 1924-1940 period Margit Lagerheim-Romare wrote for the Stockholms-Tidningen and Dagens Nyheter newspapers. Her output included causerie-type columns, poems, and cooking recipes. Her son Bertil was born in 1926 and that year Margit Lagerheim-Romare began to write radio-programmes. These were directed at children and had titles such as Prinsessan och fulingen, Trollfiolen, and Nisse och Greta plundra granen. She herself provided the narrator’s voice. The radio celebrity Farbror Sven (Uncle Sven) performed in her show called Landsvägsluffaren. Margit Lagerheim-Romare also contributed to the Svenska Turistföreningens årsskrift 1929 publication to which she submitted a lengthy causerie-style piece on Ven.
Following the publication of Margit Lagerheim-Romare’s first book, Förlåt, Erik! in 1939, most of the reviews she received were positive. As a child Margit Lagerheim-Romare had also learned to play the guitar and when she began to write ballads she went on short singing tours and appeared on various radio shows. She never recorded a record, however. Her 1944 collection of songs called Flickan från Marseille was an extraordinay success. Indeed, the artist Pär Lindblad was inspired to paint a gouache with the same name, which he then gave to her. A few years later she released another song collection called Från gränder och gläntor. Margit Lagerheim-Romare’s songs have been covered by many artists in the ensuing years, including Nora Brockstedt, Margareta Kjellberg, Bertil Boo, Ulla Billquist and Asta Jaeder.
The Lagerheim-Romare family had a summer cottage in Tiveden and the local area inspired Margit Lagerheim-Romare to write new songs. She also published accompanying music for guitar, lute, and piano. She also wrote lyrics and music for waltzes, ballads, and tangos. Some examples of these works are “Annas snäckskrin”, “Svag till måttlig växlande vind”, and “Bergsprängar Karlsson (Eld i berget)”. She also provided the lyrics for E.M. Stuart’s music.
During the autumn of 1961 Margit Lagerheim-Romare travelled to Quito in Ecuador along with the adventurer and author Rolf Blomberg. She visited the place where her father had spent a few years undertaking research and sent a greeting to her son Bertil using an amateur radio apparatus.
Margit Lagerheim-Romare died suddenly, aged 64 in 1962. Just eleven days later her husband died. They are both buried at Djursholm cemetery.
