EULOGY OF COMMUNITY LEADER PATTY SWANSON
by Wally Painter
Patty Swanson, age 83, passed away on Nov. 29, 2021. She was an education reporter for local newspapers for over 40 years, and then served 8 years as a member of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Board of Trustees.
The following is the eulogy given by her close friend Wally Paynter at her memorial service at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Downtown Evansville.
Today I am here to talk about my friend Patty Swanson, one of my closest friends for the past 30 years. I first met Patty Swanson in the 1980s, when she was a reporter and covering school board meetings in Carmi, IL where I am from. We met again when I was a student government leader at the University of Evansville, where she was a reporter and sought out stories about LGBTQ individuals, as well as stories that enlightened the community about minority communities and women’s accomplishments. She was not the first reporter to cover LGBT issues locally, but she was the first reporter locally to talk to the LGBT community ON THE RECORD with those she was interviewing using their full names. She was someone that was trusted.
She had a nephew named JD that was gay and helped educate her on LGBT issues. She was the first person JD came out to, during a phone call in 1989 where he hemmed and hawed, and she had the flu. She thought…out with it, I know you are gay! When he came out to her, she was her loving understanding self, letting him come out at his own pace. She was the aunt that was always ready with a hug, smile, and readily expressed emotions. One of her favorite trips was her visit with JD and his spouse, Paul Van Kampen, in West Hollywood in the late 1990s. She loved the area and especially a Thai restaurant called Tommy Tang’s, where all the waiters were in drag. She loved it, talked to all of JD’s friends, and she says one of the men also hit on her. When I suggested perhaps he thought she was a drag queen, she laughed and said she never considered that.
As a reporter, she not only educated the community about all the schools, but she held the school board’s feet to the fire about making decisions that should be made in public behind closed doors. When she retired from the Evansville Courier and Press, she ran for the school board and was elected to two terms with significant support from the LGBT community. She publicly called out the school board for making so many decisions in private and then having perfunctory votes in open meetings.
As a school board member, she advocated for LGBT students, met with LGBT students at the TSA Youth Group, and arranged for then-superintendent Dr. Vince Bertram to meet with LGBT students to talk about their needs and harassment in local schools. She worked tirelessly and made a REAL difference. At the Tri-State Alliance candidates’ nights, we had her speak first. She helped educate other elected officials and candidates on how to talk about LGBTQ issues, and how to talk at an LGBTQ candidates’ form.
She was so concerned about LGBT students that she joined the Tri-State Alliance board of directors as our first straight board member…and was later named an honorary lifetime board member. Her concern about local LGBT youth in our community, and her support of me and the TSA Youth Group, never waned.
At this church, after the public resignation of church member Dr. David Jaquess, she supported me as we created an LGBT concerns committee in the church. She was an active member of that committee despite church leadership not always supporting the committee’s work. She helped form a PFLAG chapter locally, and she always supported a family through the Tri-State Alliance AIDS Holiday Project. She, Dr. Forrest Orr, and I pushed (unsuccessfully) that this congregation becomes a More Light Presbyterian Church … because we want a denomination where the gay and lesbian community are treated equally in all congregations in our denomination, not just some of them. Of course, that battle has not been won, yet.
When the Evansville Press was ceasing operations, I did ask her to marry me while we were eating at Subway on Walnut Street for lunch. I asked her because I loved her as a friend AND she needed health insurance because of her diabetes. Not the most romantic setting. Locally she was one of the few reporters from the Press hired by the Courier, giving her health insurance, so no marriage was necessary. That did not stop Patty and myself joking with Paul over a Thanksgiving meal about me possibly being his stepfather and our going to ball games. Of course, the only sporting events I follow are the UE Aces Basketball and men’s beach volleyball.
On a personal level, I especially enjoyed going to dinner and movies with Patty, and with Nelle Tuggle when she was alive. The three of us went to see Brokeback Mountain among many other movies. As a joke since she was a new school board member, I did take her to see the movie American Pie so she could see what high school students are like. She was humored but also shocked. She could not remember the name of the movie, so she would tell people that I took her to a movie with a strange masturbation scene, and then she would describe it. People always looked shocked. The way she described it, it sounded more like a porno than an R-rated comedy.
During the pandemic, we would talk outside of her assisted living facility, and then again in a special room with a glass wall. During these visits, I would bring her sugar-free candy and we would talk about nostalgia. We would talk about great ministers like the Rev. Joe Baus, who led this church for so many years. He took strong civil rights stands without concern for the repercussions. He ALWAYS visited congregation members and the elderly, regardless of their perceived socioeconomic status.
We would talk about schools and school boards, and how leaders like Dr. Vince Bertram relished public comment AND held dozens of meetings with parents including meetings at midnight and weekends to MAXIMIZE community and parent feedback. And we would talk about the glory days of the newspaper when people respected newspapers, they were well-staffed, and the papers were able to both do quality investigative stories and properly vet their sources.
More importantly, she would talk about her close friends like Polly Bigham, with who she hoped to medically feel better and go out and do more. She would talk about Nancy Erwin, who worked tirelessly to remove barriers and meet Patty’s needs. But most importantly she talked about her son Paul, who she loved so much, and she was SO proud of his personal life and professional accomplishments. As her medical needs grew, she had to move to a nursing home. But the positive thing about this movie was that we were finally able to hug and give goodbye kisses. The ability to have physical touch again was important.
Patty Swanson was a force of nature. People often underestimated her due to her being a woman and due to her lisp. For those she covered and investigated as a reporter, they underestimated her at their own peril.
But for all of us who were close to her, we knew her as a loving, intelligent independent woman who lived her life to the fullest. She was both happy and proud of the life she lived, and her friends and family. She is someone we love, and that we will never forget.
FOOTNOTE: Pictured on the outside cover page are Patty and Paul Swanson are pictured at Patty’s retirement party from the EVSC School Board
