Mary Loretta Clemmensen

Mary Loretta Swanson Clemmensen

Born February 27, 1958, Chicago, Illinois

Died July 12, 2024, Roseville, California

Mary Loretta Swanson, 66, died July 12, 2024, in Roseville, California, after a brief hospitalization. She was the loving mother of four children: Laura (Brandon) Edwards of Fair Oaks, CA; Andrea (Dan Fester) Swanson of Las Vegas, NV; Scott (Haley DeBernardi) Swanson of Sacramento, CA; and Sarah (Ryan Glenn) Swanson of Las Vegas, NV, all of whom survive her. She was the proud grandmother of eleven: Amelia and Abigail Edwards; Christian, Madeline, and Scarlett Meadows; Jack and Noah Fester; Arya and Scott Swanson; and McKenna and Madden Glenn. She was the fond aunt of Erin and Megan Flannigan. She is also survived by her brothers, John Flannigan of Chicago and Thomas (Ellen Etscheid) Flannigan of Winnetka, IL, her cousin, Mary McCullough of Lansing, IL, and her dear cat, Theron. She was the former wife of Gary Facko and Scott Swanson. Her husband Richard Clemmensen predeceased her.

The only daughter of John J. and Loretta M. Flannigan, Mary grew up on Chicago’s South Side in the Avalon Park and Beverly neighborhoods and attended St. Felicitas and Christ the King elementary schools and Academy of Our Lady high school. She later lived in Chicago’s western suburbs and relocated to the Sacramento area in 2020. Patient, capable, and level-headed even as a young girl, she was much in demand as a trusted babysitter for neighboring families. After marrying, Mary was hired by Aldi’s Discount Food as a cashier at the first Aldi store to open in the Chicago area. Being a cashier at any store in the pre-barcode era was a tough job, but it was especially so at Aldi because, unlike other grocery chains’ stock, Aldi’s had no price tags; cashiers had to know the price of every item in the store’s constantly changing inventory. Mary’s steel-trap memory, excellent keyboard skills, and personable manner served her well at Aldi and at later positions at the Proviso School District, various mortgage brokers, and several Chicago law firms specializing in workman’s compensation and personal injury, most recently Karchmar & Stone.

After starting a family, Mary continued to work, but she saved most of her energy for raising her children. She taught them lessons that even the best schools can’t offer, encouraging their participation in a broad range of sports and school activities. Her knowledge of baseball and love for the sport made her a popular and respected coach among the families of St. Charles Borromeo parish in Melrose Park, IL, whose school Mary’s children attended. A lifelong learner herself, Mary raised her children to be curious about the world, to enjoy its riches, and to be considerate of people and animals, lessons her children will pass on to her grandchildren.

After raising her family and in her early fifties, Mary enrolled at Triton College, River Grove, IL, and then in the English program at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where, while working full-time, she earned a bachelor’s degree and completed the coursework for an M.A. She loved the works of a wide range of authors, from Laura Ingalls Wilder and Truman Capote to the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, and Anthony Trollope, and her own stories were published in NEIU’s journal of student writing. Mary was also fascinated by English history, particularly the Tudor era, and especially enjoyed Alison Weir’s books. She  loved colonial American history, too, and anything concerning the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, as well as genealogy, music (from pop to rock to opera), politics, classic movies, live theater, museums–the list of her interests goes on and on. To have a conversation with Mary on any topic was to receive an education in a field you thought you already knew backwards and forwards.

She will be greatly missed by her family and many friends, all of whom feel she left them too soon. She would like all of them, however, to live their lives to the fullest, as she lived her own life, and with the same spirit and warmth for which they will always remember her.