Hanson, Della Frances Thompson (1897–1981)

Della Hanson, an American-born Adventist missionary educator, served at the court of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia for more than 30 years.

Early Years

Della Frances Thompson was born on October 9, 1897, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was the fifth of the eleven children of Thomas Nielson Thompson (1862-1920) and Elizabeth Alice née Rosser (1870-1959).¹ After completing the elementary grades, Della obtained further education at two Adventist institutions in Minnesota. She took her secondary education at Maplewood Academy and then went on to the Danish-Norwegian Seminary² where she majored in music.³

After graduating in 1918 Della remained at the seminary, joining the faculty as music teacher.⁴ Two years later she returned to Maplewood to teach piano, organ and voice.⁵

On June 20, 1921, she married Herbert Martin Hanson (1894-1966), a fellow Minnesotan, born to Norwegian immigrants. Like Della, he was a 1916 graduate of Maplewood who went on to further study at the Danish-Norwegian Seminary (see the article “Hanson, Herbert Martin” in Related Content).

Missionary Educator in Norway and Ethiopia

The couple dedicated themselves to overseas missionary service. In 1922, they journeyed to Norway to begin that nation’s first Adventist school, known as the Norway SDA Mission School or Onsrud Misjousskole in Norwegian.⁶ Della taught music; Herbert served as principal and farm manager and taught physics, mathematics and English.⁷

In 1934, Della Hanson and her husband went to Ethiopia, where Herbert worked as the principal at the Addis Alem school for boys. Della taught alongside him in that school. After a little more than a year, they would have to cope with the vagaries of life during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.⁸

During the European powers’ “scramble for Africa,” Ethiopia and Liberia stood as the only African nations that remained free from colonial rule. Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, carefully managed his relationships with the dominant colonial powers. However, the imperialist ambitions of Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, culminated in that nation’s invasion of Ethiopia in October 1935. By May 1936, Italy had annexed Ethiopia into its empire.

Shortly after the invasion, the Hansons had to flee from Addis Alem to Addis Ababa where they remained at the Empress Zauditu Hospital, helping the wounded of war as Red Cross volunteers. As the war ended, the Italian authorities gave them permission to reopen the school at Addis Alem.⁹

In 1939, though, the authorities forced the Hansons out of the country. They took a one-year furlough in the United States but returned to Ethiopia in 1940. They had to stay in traditional Ethiopian huts outside Addis Ababa, resuming their work in their old school after Emperor Haile Selassie returned to the throne.¹⁰

Thirty Years as Keeper of the Royal Household

Haile Selassie, forced into exile, delivered a passionate appeal to the League of Nations in Geneva in June 1936, warning the international community with the prophetic words, “It is us today. Tomorrow it will be you.” Despite this plea, no substantial aid arrived. It was not until Italy, siding with Germany during World War II, declared war on Britain and France in June 1940, that the tide turned. Haile Selassie immediately returned to Africa and gathered a force of Ethiopians that joined British forces to drive out the invaders.

As soon as he regained power in May 1941, Haile Selassie specifically called on Seventh-day Adventist missionaries to return to his country and further develop the work established prior to the Italian invasion.¹¹ He also made a request to the Adventist Mission office to recommend someone to lead out in restoring order to his palace, which the Italian army had used as its headquarters. That job fell to Della Hanson and she moved to the royal residence in Addis Ababa as keeper of the royal household.¹² According to an article in Life magazine, she managed a palace staff of 50, responsible for food service and all of the other day-to-day needs of the imperial household.¹³

In 1943, the Emperor granted the Hansons a site for a new school in Akaki.¹⁴ While they were on furlough in the United States in 1946, a feature story about the Hansons appeared in the Washington Post. That article prompted the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to feature Della in a half-hour radio program broadcast nationwide.¹⁵

The Hansons returned to Ethiopia in 1947 and devoted the rest of their active years of service to the people of that nation. They told their remarkable experience as missionaries in the book For God and Emperor, published by Pacific Press in 1958. Herbert died in October 1966 but Della remained in Ethiopia and continued serving the emperor for another eight years. In all, she spent a total of 40 years as a missionary in Ethiopia, 30 of them in the royal palace, an unprecedented role for an Adventist missionary.

Final Years

In February 1974, amidst a devastating famine, students, workers, and soldiers initiated a series of strikes and demonstrations, which ultimately led to the deposition of Emperor Haile Selassie by members of the armed forces on September 12, 1974. Della managed to escape from the country just three days before. She retired in Riverside, California, and remained there until her death on November 17, 1981, at age 84. When the first mission plane was dedicated in Ethiopia, it was named Della Hanson in honor of her many years of selfless service in the country.¹⁶

Sources

Altman, Roger. “Saved to Serve.” Church Officers Gazette, July 1942.

“Della F. Hanson obituary.” ARH, February 4, 1982.

Edwards, W. H. “Noted Man at the Seminary.” Northern Union Reaper, June 13, 1916.

Ferrens, J. R. “General Conference News Reports.” Northern Union Outlook, July 2, 1946.

Hanson, Herbert M. and Della. For God and Emperor. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1958.

“Haile Selassie’s Housekeeper.” Life, June 7, 1943.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA). https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/AllItems.aspx

“Thompson, Della Frances.” FamilySearch. Accessed August 16, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G794-49L.

Watson, C. D. “A Hero Goes To His Rest.” Northern Light, December 1966.

Notes

1. Della Frances Thompson,” FamilySearch, accessed August 16, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G794-49L.↩

2. The Danish-Norwegian Seminary was operated in Hutchinson, Minnesota, from 1911 to 1928. It was established to train church workers in Danish and Norwegian languages. Initially, the plan was to provide this training at Union College, Nebraska, but by 1909, Union College, had become so overcrowded that it was decided to create separate schools. L. H. Christian located the buildings of a defunct Danish Lutheran institution in Hutchinson, which were owned by the city. The institution was renamed as Hutchinson Theological Seminary.↩

3. W. H. Edwards, ““Noted Man at the Seminary.” Northern Union Reaper, June 13, 1916, 1.↩

4. “Danish-Norwegian Seminary” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1919, 196.↩

5. “Maplewood Academy” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1921, 162.↩

6. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1926, 12.↩

7. “Norway SDA Mission School,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1926, 284.↩

8. C. D. Watson, “A Hero Goes To His Rest,” Northern Light, December 1966, 11.↩

9. Ibid.↩

10. Ibid.↩

11. Roger Altman, “Saved to Serve,” Church Officers Gazette, July 1942, 1.↩

12. “Della F. Hanson obituary,” ARH, February 4, 1982, 15.↩

13. “Haile Selassie’s Housekeeper,” Life, June 7, 1943, 47-48.↩

14. Watson, “A Hero Goes To His Rest,” 11.↩

15. J. R. Ferrens, “General Conference News Reports,” Northern Union Outlook, July 2, 1946, 1.↩

16. “Della F. Hanson obituary.”↩