Ethelynn C. Swan

Ethelynn Cooper Swan of Holly Bluff, Biloxi, passed away Saturday morning, July 9, 2011, in Ocean Springs Hospital of complications of congestive heart failure, which she had battled for years. She was 89 years old. Born in Tillamook, Oregon, she moved to North Biloxi with her family when she was six. Her father, Lee Cooper, was a native of Oregon, while her mother, Anna Rachuba Cooper, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, had previously lived on the Gulf Coast. She attended St. John’s elementary school and graduated from D’Iberville High School in 1939. Some of her fondest memories from her childhood were of train trips to New Orleans to visit relatives. Immediately after graduation she was hired as bookkeeper at the Tivoli and Riviera Hotels in Biloxi, where she worked directly for the hotels’ owner, Mr. J.C. Hunt. When Hunt moved back to Texas, where he also owned hotels, he offered her a job there. Instead, she chose to stay with her mother and younger sister, Martha Lee Cooper, in Mississippi, her father having died when she was 12. She began working in 1941 at Ferson and Swan Insurance Agency, founded by George A. Swan and his brother-in-law, Fred Ferson. Ethelynn and George were subsequently married on December 24, 1944, when George was home on leave while serving during World War II at a Coast Guard base near Portland, Maine. Ethelynn ran the agency on Reynoir Street single-handedly through the later years of the war and until George’s discharge in 1946. She continued to work sporadically at the agency after the birth of her son, George A. Swan III, but after the birth of her daughter Annalyn became a fulltime mother. An extraordinarily dedicated mother, Ethelynn devoted much of her time in later years to her children and school-related activities. She served as treasurer of the PTA at Gorenflo Elementary and Mary L. Michel Junior High School, which both of her children attended. A very active member of Sacred Heart parish in D’Iberville, she taught CCD classes and helped out at the rectory, first with Fr. Patrick McAlpine and in later years with Monsignor Francis Farrell. For the last few decades of her life she was a member of Fatima Parish in West Biloxi. She leaves behind many friends in the parish. Ethelynn is survived by her son,George (Jamie Lynn) Swan of Baton Rouge, La. and Biloxi and her daughter Annalyn (Mark Stevens) Swan of New York, as well as by her granddaughters, Emmelyn Swan Stevens and Julia Philippa Stevens, whose visits to their Nana were shining moments in Ethelynn’s life in later years. She also made frequent trips to visit her family in New York. Ethelynn is survived as well by her niece Mary Beth (Richard) Deethardt of Mandeville, La. Ethelynn was preceded in death by her parents, her older sister Leona Quave and her younger sister Martha. For the last four years of her life, following a broken hip in 2007, Ethelynn had the support of four wonderful caregivers—Rose Gollotte and Hilda Hartley and, more recently, Gloria Broome and Barbara Bullard. The family is also deeply grateful to Dr. Bradley Heitzman, her primary care physician of 27 years. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 14, 2011, at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, 2090 Pass Road, Biloxi. Friends may visit an hour before the mass. Interment will be at Biloxi cemetery. Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home, Howard Avenue, in Biloxi is in charge of arrangements.