Mildred Longbody Swartz, 76, passed away Nov. 4, 2016 at Bayshore Residence and Rehabilitation Center in Duluth.
She was born Dec. 12, 1939, in Cloquet, the ninth of 10 children of Joseph and Mary (Flatte) Longbody. Along with all her siblings, Millie was taken from her parents at a young age as a result of the federal forced assimilation program.
Millie was open-hearted and generous towards all. Despite many hardships in life, she remained a profoundly cheerful person with a positive outlook. Her strength came from her spiritual life, in which she combined Catholicism and traditional Anishinaabe beliefs.
As children, Millie’s older eight siblings had been taken to Pipestone Boarding School in southwestern Minnesota. But she and a sister, being too young, were placed in St. James Catholic Orphanage in Duluth. Six years later, Joe and Mary Reynolds of Deer River took the girls into their home. Millie always had high praise for the Reynolds, an Anishinaabe couple who were kind and helped her reconnect with her roots. She continued her education at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she took up commercial cooking.
Millie wasn’t afraid of hard work; she had a “get it done” attitude. She worked at Honeywell in Minneapolis and also at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, where she prepared meals for the children in daycare. She loved the work at the center and always came home talking about her day. Later in life, she moved back to Grand Portage, where she worked at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino until she retired.
Millie loved to journey to powwows, and to dance and celebrate her heritage and culture. She enjoyed the simple things in life, like walking her beloved pet “Dobie,” picking berries on a summer day and playing bingo at the casino.
Millie loved her family with her whole being and was so devoted to us all. She cared about everybody and had a way of making everybody feel special. Her most prominent characteristics were her easy laughter and an enormous smile. Before a series of strokes severely handicapped her, she became affectionately known as “Miss America,” because she waved and smiled at people as she passed them. But even after the strokes, that same ready smile endeared her to Bayshore staff, who cared for her lovingly and wept when she died.
Preceding Millie in death were her parents; her husband, Glenn Swartz; four sisters, Josephine and Charlotte (who died in the boarding school), Lillian “Theresa” Eveland, and Mary Lou Ackley; a brother, Joseph Longbody; and a granddaughter, Amber Lanham.
Survivors include a daughter, Brenda (Paul) Enyart of Shakopee, Minn.; three sons, Eugene Swartz and Duane Swartz of Grand Portage, and Tyrone Nehring of Florida; two sisters, Doris Blank of Grand Portage and Elsie Long of Auburn, Wash.; two brothers, Clarence Longbody of Red Lake and Ed Longbody of Grand Portage; six grandchildren, Jesse and Mya Swartz, Shane Losh, Brock and Brandon Lanham, and Jessica Wisnewski, all of the Twin Cities; and many nieces, nephews and great-grandchildren.
Services were held Nov. 12 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Grand Portage, where a memorial for her brother Joe, who died in March in Duluth, was also held. Burial was in Sunset Cemetery.
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