Her collections were seeds for Hemet Museum
FOUNDING CURATOR': A woman who devoted herself to preserving area history dies at 93.
12:50 AM PST on Friday, March 10, 2006
By GAIL WESSON / The Press-Enterprise
Long before a museum opened in Hemet, Laura Swift wrote descriptive documentation and put in safe storage photos and other artifacts that one day would create a legacy of the passion for local history she shared with her late husband.
Her decades of volunteering -- first as a Ramona Bowl docent and Hemet Woman's Club officer and later as a Hemet Museum volunteer -- continued until age 90. She was a Saturday fixture behind the desk at the Hemet Museum, which houses the fruit of the collecting habits of the Swifts and other history buffs.
She died from complications of pneumonia Wednesday at an Anaheim Hills board and care home. She was 93.
"We consider her the founding curator of the museum," said Anne B. Jennings, museum director and a longtime friend.
About three years ago, Laura Carolyn Krajewski Lehman Swift moved to Orange County to be closer to family.
She was involved in formation of the nonprofit Hemet Area Museum Association in 1974 and, assisted by the late Phoebe Sherrod, organized a growing collection. They put on small exhibits at banks and other locations until the group opened the first museum in a downtown Hemet storefront in 1987. The museum has been at the historic Santa Fe Depot since 1998.
Her husband, Hemet native Clarence "Swifty" Swift, was Hemet city historian before his death in 1985. Mrs. Swift met her future husband while working at her aunt Helen Kellner's variety store in Hemet. They married in 1937.
Robert Lindquist, another local historian, wrote in a tribute that the Swifts made a great team -- Clarence, at rescuing photos and documents, and Laura, at safekeeping them. She would accompany him on outings like "spending a long day somewhere in San Diego County's high country talking to an early rancher."
The Swifts' photo collection contains almost 1,000 prints chronicling San Jacinto Valley history. Mrs. Swift donated the collection jointly to the museum and Hemet Public Library in 1996.
She also was a life member of Hemet Woman's Club and served as president from 1971 to 1973. One of the club's community-improvement projects was geared toward starting a museum.
"I think she was the one who really promoted it," Joann Covi, club treasurer, said by phone.
Mrs. Swift wrote a club history from 1906 to 1975, and was known for her annual reports on the club's accomplishments for the year and future goals, Covi said.
Mrs. Swift was born in Wausau, Wis., and lived in Los Angeles before she moved to Hemet. She worked in real estate, retail sales at Sears & Roebuck and J.C. Penney.
Mrs. Swift is survived by two sisters, Jacqueline Schirm and Arleen Whitley; three nephews, a niece and their families.
Reach Gail Wesson at (951) 763-3455 or gwesson@PE.com
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