Mary Elizabeth Swaim was born in the Broadbay area of Winston-Salem, North Carolina on July 9, 1930. Her home was on Old Thomasville Road just outside the city limits of Winston-Salem. The house is still standing. During the depression her family lost their home and they moved to Old Town, Forsyth County, N.C. Mary graduated from Old Town School. Mary enjoyed working when she was young. She always spoke of her helping at the local grocery store in the neighborhood. Mary learned to sew and made many of her mother's dresses. This she continued all her life making my clothes and for herself. Later years she made many homemade quilts. On Mary's first date with my father they went to the annual Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem. Mary married on January 1, 1949 in Forsyth County, N.C. They built their first home on Reed Street, Winston-Salem. This was next door to her mother and across the highway from her grandparents. Mary worked at Western Electric and continued to work there until my father started traveling for his job at Western Electric. Mary traveled and lived in Oxnard, Ca. 1963, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1964, Bermuda 1965, Guam 1969 and Wales, U.K. in 1973-1975. In between long jobs at these locations we would pack up and go for the summer to other places as Eleuthera, back to Bermuda and, Cape Hatteras, N.C. She flew to numerous other locations where my father was working on short jobs. She made many friends at these places and kept in touch with them the rest of her life. In 1965 between travels my parents purchased a home in Clemmons, North Carolina. This was in the same area that my father was born at. Mary went back to work at a fabric store for several years. She had the chance to buy her own fabric store and that is what she did. She owned the Fabric Village in Clemmons for over 14 years until she was ready to retire. She was doing what she loved selling and sewing when she had time. Mary was blessed with 4 grandsons and 2 great grandchildren. Her greatest excitement in her later years was her niece who had twin boys. She loved little boy babies. Mary enjoyed her vegetable garden and her flowers. She loved her pekingese dogs and her cats. She really loved playing bingo and enjoyed the bus trips to Atlantic City. Mary passed away on May 15, 2009 at hospice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her burial was at Westlawn in Clemmons next to her husband Millard Harper. This personal history is from her daughter Janice Harper Robertson.
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