Mary Edith Swartz

Mary Edith Swartz of Butler, PA grew up as the eldest of five children of Joseph and Susan Kuhn, their only daughter and fraternal twin of John. Along with her younger brothers Jim, Mike and Paul the stories of those days and hijinks making up their childhoods, would shape them and family dynamics to this day.

As fate would have it, Mary stepped in for a blind double date one night, which then began a relationship leading to 52 years of marriage to Richard. They would settle down in Indiana Township where they started a family, having two sons, Brian and David.

Like her mother, Mary had a lifetime nursing career, caring for countless patients. She worked her way through nursing school, had transitioned from several different departments to find her calling in intravenous therapy. She worked in West Penn and St. Margaret’s Hospitals on the IV teams for many years balancing night and weekend schedules with her family, reflecting her caring spirit at home. Eventually, Mary transitioned into being a nurse in the homecare industry for IV Therapy. She proudly held nursing licenses in three states and traveled throughout the tri-state area at all times, day and night. She was a natural born teacher and as such, filled instructor rolls at the end of her career. Mary took great pride in being a nurse and was never shy to let medical professionals know her background as she found herself as the patient in her later years.

Once Rick retired, they chose to move to Butler in 2003. This allowed more room for family to visit and to store their classic cars. She enjoyed going to car shows and cruises with him, including being a part of car clubs and events. Mary really enjoyed their property, the woods, the wildlife, and made regular fair-weather rides in her golf cart around the grounds feeding the deer and birds.

Mary, like her mother, was quite resourceful. She sewed, gardened, cooked, and still found time to raise a family and have a career. Her financial management skills, she jokingly referred to as "creative financing" laid a foundation in the thinking of both her sons. She would always have to be the miser to Rick's impulsive spending plans, which was funny to witness as Rick would comment, “She won't let me buy anything.” Yet this mostly meant another car or equipment. Their loving and playful relationship was inspirational.

Mary was dedicated to her family, friends and neighbors. She will truly be missed as the matriarch of the family, a loving wife of Richard, who preceded her in death (2024), mother to Brian (Amy) & David (Jennifer) and grandmother to her four grandchildren Erik, Noelle, Holly and Nicholas.