Zoe Head Swift

Zoe Alma Head Swift died of old age in Falmouth, ME on March 2, 2015. She was born December 26, 1924 at her family’s home in Snowville (now Eaton), NH. Her father, Winfield Head, was at various times a farmer, a school superintendent, and a state legislator. Her mother Helen (Blake) Head was a teacher, a homemaker, and for 50 years the town’s postmaster. Zoe grew up on the family farm with her three siblings and attended a one-room schoolhouse. She graduated from Kennett High School in Conway, NH at 16 and then from Plymouth State Teacher’s College after only three years. After graduation, she began her teaching career at elementary schools in Laconia and other NH towns.

While studying during the summer for a master’s degree at the University of Maine, Orono, Zoe met at a dance Frank Swift, a Navy veteran and salesman from Brooklyn, NY who had recently been assigned northern Maine as his sales territory. While different in many ways—religion, politics, family background—this country girl and city boy were a perfect match and balance for each other. She was serious and reserved with a dry Yankee wit and admitted that she was at first not overly impressed by Frank, an outgoing, talkative young salesman for Robin Hood Flour. But they fell in love, married on December 23, 1951, and, upon Frank’s promotion to a new territory, moved to Hanover, NH, where she taught school.

Zoe and Frank moved again in 1952 to Vermont, where their daughter Anne and son Chris were born. After a one-year stint in New York, they made their final move to Portland, ME. Zoe stayed home with the children until both started school but she then returned to work as a fourth grade teacher in Portland, at the Presumpscot, Roosevelt, and Longfellow schools. She retired in 1984 after 30+ years of teaching.

After their retirements, Zoe and Frank spent a dozen winters in Eustis, FL. They returned to Portland full-time after 2000.

Zoe was a voracious reader all her life. When she was eight, a summer resident picking up his mail saw Zoe reading on the steps of her home, which was also the town Post Office. He was so impressed with her reading ability that for many years this kind high school principal mailed Zoe books from his New York City home. She was always grateful that a generous stranger helped broaden both her learning and her aspirations. Zoe read her whole life, even after she became so forgetful that she could not retain a plot.

Zoe was a woman of many avocations. An excellent baker, she crafted eight pies for every Thanksgiving dinner—for more than 50 years. Having learned bridge as a young mother, she played regularly and very well with neighborhood friends and at the Women’s Woodford’s Club. In later years, after Frank learned, they played every Saturday night after attending a local bean supper with friends. She enjoyed other card games and excelled at crossword puzzles well into her 80s.

Zoe sewed many of her family’s clothes for years. She knitted, crocheted (making baby afghans for newborns at Maine Medical Center), and her craft work decorated her home and provided many beautiful gifts. She and Frank traveled widely in the US, visiting all of the lower 48 states, as well as Ireland, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Caribbean.

A multi-talented woman, Zoe also proved her strength and perseverance when, after Frank’s death in 2009, she moved to assisted living at Birchwoods at Canco in Portland and continued on with her life, crocheting, reading, and reminiscing about family and friends. As she aged and grew more forgetful and fragile, Zoe moved once more to Sedgewood Commons for the last year of her life. She loved dearly and was very proud of her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren.

Zoe was predeceased by her husband of 58 years, Frank J. Swift, her parents, and her siblings Florence, Sam, and Bruce. She is survived by her daughter Anne Swift-Kayatta and husband Bill Kayatta, son F. Christopher Swift and wife Rae Ann Swift, four grandchildren—Katherine Kayatta and husband Ian Gilbert of Portland, Elizabeth Kayatta of Boston, Austin Swift of Miami, and Dana Swift of Texas—as well as her sister-in-law Virginia Swift of Brooklyn, NY and Zoe’s three nephews and their spouses, David and Vanessa Eldridge of Florida, Dick and Terry Eldridge of Eaton, NH, and Tom and Terry Head of Eaton, NH.

Visiting hours will be held on Friday, May 29, 015 from 4 to 7 pm at the Jones, Rich & Hutchins Funeral Home at 199 Woodford St. Portland, Maine. Funeral services will be held at 11 am on Saturday May 30, 2015 at Woodfords Congregational Church 202 Woodford St. Portland, Maine with a reception to follow. Online condolences can be given to the family at www.jonesrichandhutchins.com .

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Portland Public Library, Gift of Reading Program, 5 Monument Square, Portland, Maine 04101.