Dorothy F Swanson

Dorothy F. Swanson, 94, of Cambridge passed away Tuesday, May 5, 2026.

Dorothy was born in 1932 in Shoreham-by-the-Sea, Sussex, England. During World War II she lived in an orphanage until age 16, where she studied home economics and childcare.

She later worked as a nanny in London, then came to the United States in 1950 on an A-3 visa as a nanny for a family connected to the U.K. Embassy in Washington, D.C., where she lived.

Volunteering at USO dances, she met Arthur Swanson (U.S. Army Signal Corps). They married in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1955 and moved to Cambridge in 1971 after his NCR promotion; Dorothy worked at Kennedy’s Bakery.

She remained active in the community through the hospital and the downtown art center, St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Rest Stop Refreshment Cart, Dickens Bus Tours and cream-tea lectures, and Operation Dry Bottoms. Dorothy loved to volunteer and spent her free time quilting, knitting and gardening. She was one of the gardeners for St. John’s Episcopal Church Memory Gardens.

Arthur died in March 2017; Dorothy was preceded in death by her sister, Bette, and brother, Michael.

Dorothy is survived by her sister Barbara and brother Malcom in the United Kingdom; her children Heidi, Greg, and Steve (and Steve’s wife, Amy); her grandchildren Elizabeth and Nicholis (who knew her as “Nanny”); and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Services will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. John’s Episcopal Church, PO box 1044, Cambridge, Ohio 43725.