Lois C. Swan

Lois C. Swan, 91, of Presidential Oaks, 200 Pleasant St., died July 24, 2009. She was born March 15, 1918, in Waltham, Mass., to Ross Parker and Melissa (Robinson) Chamberlain. She grew up in Waterbury, Conn., and, at age 11, came in seventh in the finals of the National Spelling Bee. A 1938 graduate of Bates College, she married classmate Emery F. Swan July 6, 1939, beginning a 62-year relationship. Emery, a retired University of New Hampshire professor of marine biology, died in 2001. Lois taught French in several high schools and worked as a laboratory technician. At UNH, she was a Sociology Department secretary and library assistant. They lived in Berkeley, Calif.; New Paltz, NY; Friday Harbor, Wash., and in Durham, retiring to central Florida in 1979. Lois moved to Presidential Oaks in 2002. She was active in Unitarian Universalist congregations and Elderhostels and enjoyed square dancing, bridge, reading, scrabble and sewing. Family members include three daughters and their husbands, Olive and Douglas MacGregor of Lebanon, Barbara and Thomas Crossman of Newport News, Va., and Elizabeth Swan and Roger Talbot of Pembroke; a sister, Barbara Rafferty of Santa Rosa, Calif,; two grandchildren, Paul MacGregor of Littleton, Mass., and Karen Wilson of Tilton; three great-grandsons and five nieces. After cremation, her remains will be interred in the Swan family cemetery in New Sharon, Maine A memorial celebration will be Saturday August 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM in Unitarian Church 274 Pleasant Street Concord.