She was a longtime resident at the Plymouth Place Retirement Community in LaGrange, Illinois. A memorial service will be held at Plymouth Place on January 28 in Dole Hall at 2 PM.
Lois and her twin brother Lewis were born January 24, 1916 in Bath, Maine to parents Lewis Blackmer and Louise McDonough Barker Swett. She was a 1937 graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, MA and the Katharine Gibbs School in Boston, MA. She lived in both Boston and Philadelphia before moving to LaGrange, IL in 1962.
For 49 years she was an active member of the First Congregational Church of LaGrange serving on numerous committees and on the Board of the Wondrous Things gift shop from its inception. She joined the staff of Plymouth Place in 1970 and served in the capacity of Administrative Assistant, Director of Admissions, Assistant Administrator, and Administrator until her retirement in 1983. During her tenure at Plymouth Place she was elected to serve on the board of the Illinois Association of Homes for the Aged (IAHA).
Lois was active in the community as a member of American Association of University Women, Questers, and Allied Arts. In addition she was an ardent supporter of the arts and enjoyed the Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Art Institute of Chicago, West Suburban Symphony Orchestra, Brookfield Zoo, and the Theatre of Western Springs. She was also a loyal Chicago Cubs fan.
She is survived by two daughters, Judy Hoopman, and husband Dick, of Fredericksburg, Texas, and Barbara Steffensen and husband Jim, of Fort Worth, Texas; grandsons Todd Christian Hoopman and wife Jennifer, of Coeur d’Alene, ID, Scott Earl Hoopman and wife Alexia Rodriguez of Austin, Texas, and Peter Blackmer Steffensen, of New York City; granddaughter Sarah Celana Steffensen of Boulder, Colorado; and four great-grandchildren, Rachel and Kate Hoopman of Coeur d’Alene and Ella and Enzo Hoopman of Austin.
Her cremains will be interred in the Swett family plot at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Bath, Maine. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Lois’ memory to the First Congregational Church of LaGrange ( 100 S. 6th Avenue, LaGrange, IL, 60525); the Plymouth Place Endowment Fund (315 N. LaGrange Road, LaGrange Park, IL, 60526); or the Wheaton Fund of Wheaton College ( 26 E. Main Street, Norton, Massachusetts, 02766.).
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