Ruth Ella Thornton Swartz 1893-1991

SWARTZ, THORNTON, BINDER, CHRISTENSEN

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 10/5/2012 at 22:14:53

Ruth Swartz
Estherville – Services for Ruth Ella Swartz, 98, of Estherville, will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church with Dr. John Besore III officiating. Interment will be in Oak Hill Cemetery. She died Tuesday, Sept. 17, 1991 at Good Samaritan Center.

Friends may call at Henry-Olson-Fuhrman Funeral Home from4-9 p.m. Thursday.

She was born March 10, 1893 at Nevada, the daughter of George and Amanda (Binder) Thornton. She graduated from Nevada High School in 1912 and attended Iowa Teachers College at Cedar Falls. She taught county school in Story County before moving to Estherville area in 1915 where she also taught in rural schools until her marriage on March 28, 1917 to Claude Raymond Swartz at Butterfield, Minn. The couple farmed in Emmet County many years. He died Sept. 18, 1943 and she moved into Estherville a few years later. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church, former member of the Fidellas Class at the Church.

Survivors include one daughter, Mary Christensen, Estherville; two sons: Robert of Davenport and Howard of Sumter, S.D.; 14 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; one sister-in-law, Mrs. Luella Thornton, Alexandria, Minn.

She was preceded in death by her husband, parents; three brothers and four sisters. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, September 19, 1991)