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Mary Kathryn (Wiele) (St. Clair) Swan
Mary Kathryn
(Wiele) (St. Clair) Swan
Tipton
Mary Kathryn (Wiele) (St. Clair) Swan, age 81, died Aug. 8, 2025 at her home in Tipton. Burial will take place at Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, Iowa at a later date.
Mary was born July 12, 1944 in Burlington to Lester Henry Samuel and Laura Elizabeth (Scott) Wiele.
She was a graduate of Burlington High School, Burlington Community College (now Southeast) and Western Illinois University with a degree in elementary education, as well as some later graduate courses at Iowa State. Mary taught kindergarten and first grade in Ft. Madison, Burlington, and Ft. Lewis, Washington from 1966 to 1970.
In 1964 she married Gary W. St. Clair of Ft. Madison at First UCC church in Burlington and they divorced in 1982. To this union was born Laura Jo on April 9, 1970. Mary married David F. Swan of Tipton in 1982 and they divorced in 1993. To this union was born Kathryn Ann on January 16, 1984.
Mary became a full-time mom and homemaker in 1970 and remained so. A decade later while living in Algona, she taught G.E.D. and self-guided college classes for Iowa Lakes campus in Algona. For many years she was also a dealer in antiques, having owned an antique mall in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, a shop in Iowa City, Iowa and was a tenant in several other shops through the years. Her avid interests were antiques, genealogy and reading.
Over the years Mary resided in Burlington, Ft. Madison, Algona and Tipton in Iowa, as well as Windom, Minnesota and Tillicum, Washington. For her first fifty years or so she was a member of various UCC churches and was both baptized and confirmed at First UCC in Burlington.
She was preceded in death by her father in 1973, her mother in 2005, her daughter Laura Hovdesven in 2007, and her stillborn brother Timothy Scott Wiele in 1949.
She is survived by her daughter Kathryn Kummer, her grandson Jared Hovdesven, Kathryn’s children, several great-grandchildren and her brother Jonathan Kearns Cooper-Wiele, as well as many cousins.
Memorials should be directed to a charity of the giver’s choice.
(Obituary written by Mary Kathryn Swan, revised in May 2020.)
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