Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 271557
Title: Margaret M. Swift
Date: 5/1/1937-3/30/2025
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 5/1/1937
Summary: Margaret Swift, 87, of Dickinson, ND, loving wife, mother, artist and entrepreneur, died March 30 in Glen Ullin, ND, after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. A funeral Mass was held April 10, 2025, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Father Gary Benz celebrating. Burial was at Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery. Margaret Mary Gartner was born May 1, 1937, to George and Barbara (Loren) Gartner on their farm south of Hebron, ND. She attended school in the rural Carson/Flasher area until 1949, when her family moved to Glen Ullin. She graduated from Glen Ullin High in 1955 and earned a teaching certificate from Black Hills Teachers College in Spearfish, SD. Margaret taught in one-room schoolhouses near Glen Ullin and Hebron and also at the Litchville, ND, school before marrying Virgil “Pat” Swift on September 26, 1959. They lived on a ranch south of Glen Ullin for many years, where they raised their five children. In the early 1970s while taking her daughter to art classes, Margaret became so interested that she also began taking lessons. This early love of art would bloom into a 45-year career. By 1978, Swift opened her first business, The Art Shack, where she sold art supplies and gave lessons. She taught different art mediums and styles to students of all ages -- sometimes traveling as far as Colorado and South Dakota to do so. She also won numerous awards for her highly detailed, realistic style and expert use of color. Her work was selected to hang in the North Dakota Governor’s Mansion and she was named 2007 Citation Award Winner by the Bismarck Arts and Galleries Association. In 1997, Margaret, an excellent cook and hostess, opened the Rock Roof Inn Bed and Breakfast in the Swift home. Over the years, the Swifts provided lodging for guests from all over the country, as well as from China, England, Russia and Australia. When Margaret was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019, her family feared the 82-year-old would never make it. After she beat the disease, Mayo surgeons declared her a miracle. She continued to run the inn until fall 2023, after learning the cancer had returned. Through it all, Margaret’s faith and spirit never wavered. She found great comfort from weekly Mass and reading her devotionals as well as from spending time with her family. Her gentle strength, steadfast integrity, tireless work ethic and creative talent won’t be forgotten. Margaret is survived by husband, Virgil; her children, Sandy (Rob) Gerving, of Glen Ullin, Terri (Mike) Tyree, of North Ft. Myers, FL, Connie (John) Bailey, of Lakeland, FL, Tammy (Randy) Swift Shone, of West Fargo, ND, Gary (Karen) Swift, Bismarck, ND; four grandchildren, Eric Gerving, of Bismarck, Sara (James) Farrell of Glen Ullin, Kari (Daniel) Schaaf, of Hebron, ND, Courtney Bailey, of Oxford, MS; six great-grandchildren; and one brother, George Gartner, of Billings, MT; and sisters-in-law, Avis Halpern and Ethel Flynn, both of Glen Ullin.
Red ID: FND_I_79053 Image ID: 525158 Image Notes: FND001 271557

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.