Quick Facts
Biography
Alice Sommerlath, born Alice Soares de Toledo (25 May 1906 – 9 March 1997) was the mother of Queen Silvia, consort of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Early life
Sommerlath was born in the municipality of São Manuel in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, she was the youngest child and only daughter of Elisa Novais Soares (1881–1928) and her husband Arthur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935).
Marriage and later life
On 10 December 1925, Alice Soares de Toledo married at Santa Cecília, São Paulo to German entrepreneur Walther Sommerlath (1901–1990), eventually moving to Germany with him. There, the couple had four children:
- Ralf Sommerlath (born 1929)
- Walther Ludwig Sommerlath (born 1934)
- Hans Jörg Sommerlath (1941–2006)
- Silvia Sommerlath (born 23 December 1943), married in 1976 to Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
From 1947 to 1957, the family lived in São Paulo, where Sommerlath's husband held positions such as president of the Brazilian subsidiary of Swedish company Uddeholm AB. In 1957, the Sommerlaths returned to Heidelberg.
Sommerlath was widowed in October 1990. She suffered from heart trouble and senile dementia and died at Drottningholm Palace in Ekerö Municipality, west of Stockholm in 1997. Her remains were buried in Heidelberg beside her husband's.