Swanlund, Mary Jo, 1933-2002
Dates
- Existence: June 16, 1933 - April 27, 2002
biographical information
Mary (Jo) Carty was born June 16, 1933. She attended high school at Maplewood Richmond Heights in St. Louis (Maplewood), Missouri. After several years of letter writing while he attended Purdue University, Mary Jo and Cliff Swanlund were engaged August 23, 1952, a month before Cliff entered his senior year at Purdue. They married on June 20, 1953 at the Maplewood Baptist Church. The two had a son Chuck (1959) and a daughter Judy (1961). After many years of moving around for Cliff's career, Jo's professional career started in 1968 when she began volunteering at St. Joseph Hospital, Department of Psychiatry. Through her efforts, the Psychiatric Volunteer Service was initiated and developed as one of only a few organizations in the country that recruited and trained volunteers for in-patient visitation on psychiatric wards. She became Staff Director (Coordinator) of the PVS in 1970. She went on to serve other hospitals in their volunteer efforts, but her career came to an abrupt end due to a stroke. She and Cliff resided in their home in Maplewood, until Jo's passing on April 27, 2002. They were married for 49 years.