Pearl Swank

Pearl Evelyn (Pedersen) Swank, 100, died Jan. 9, 2024, in Poplar.

She was born Oct. 19, 1923 in Congor, Minn., near Albert Lea, Minn., to Danish immigrant parents Peder Marius and Inger (Paulsen) Pedersen. When she was five years old, the family moved to a rented farm north of Circle where she went to country schools. The family moved to Malta after she finished the seventh grade. She graduated from Malta High School in 1941. She graduated in 1945 from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. She taught in Culbertson, Nashua, Fairview and Poplar High Schools.

She married Eugene Swank of North Poplar in 1952, where they raised their four children. She was an active leader for decades in the Up‘N-Atom 4-H Club teaching girls to sew, using her home economics teaching skills. She sewed all her own dresses, always had a big garden and many people appreciated “Pearl’s potatoes.” She took up quilting after her children graduated from high school, cutting blocks and sewing quilts for babies and old folks. She put together thousands of quilt tops that were donated to Denver Children’s Hospital, Daniels County Nursing Home and other charities. The star quilts she made were all quilted by her hand and she gave several neighbor teens quilts when they graduated high school.

She was a member of Zion