Coleen Swenson

Monday, May 4, 2015

Coleen M. Swenson, 58 of Mountain Home, died unexpectedly on Sunday, May 3, 2015, at a Boise hospital.

A Rosary begins at 6 p.m. Friday, May 8, at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel, in Mountain Home. A funeral service starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 9, at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Mountain Home, and a graveside service will follow at Mountain View Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel.

The former publisher of the Mountain Home News was an influential figure in the community for four decades, instrumental in a large number of major community projects.

She was born July 11, 1956, in Mountain Home to Lloyd and Vivian Waters. She grew up literally with ink in veins as her parents owned the community's newspaper from 1960-1986.

At age 10, she began work in the circulation department. Two years later, she was running that critical part of the newspaper operation, successfully battling the Union Pacific Railroad over mailbag issues.

In 1969, she began working in the composing department, where ads were put together for customers. She also began selling advertising, landing her first full-page account. By 1970, she had become head of composing and, with very little help, was handling the technical production work for two newspapers, the Mountain Home News and the local airbase's Phantom Photogram.

After graduating from Mountain Home High School in 1974, she married John Swenson on April 24, 1976, and to that union, one child, Stacy, was born in 1981. John died in 2003 at age 49 while awaiting a liver transplant.

In the fall of 1974, Coleen was named advertising manager of the Mountain Home News -- a position she held even after her parents' deaths, despite the fact the paper was sold several times over the next few years.

In February 1991, she was named publisher of the paper she'd served all her life, a position she held until 2014.

Her knowledge of both the community and newspaper operations were an enormous asset to the successful operation of the local paper. She dealt with a number of challenges to paper. When the paper lost the contract for the base newspaper in the early 1990s, she quickly created what turned out to be a much better read alternative, The Pipeline, which lasted until the contract was restored.

When the Department of Defense decided to drop most of the base newspapers around the county, she created The Patriot to fill that need. In addition, she helped create the Glenns Ferry Gazette and the Family Line, and she led the paper's expansion into the World Wide Web. In 1996, US Media Group, which owned the paper at that time, named her its Star of the Year.

Coleen had an exceptional impact on the community during her life, where she was active, often behind the scenes. She had been a member of the Rotary Club, the Mountain Home Women's Club and the Elk's Lodge, where she was named the local lodge's Distinguished Citizen in 2005 and honored as Elk of the Year for 2008-2009.

She was extensively involved with the Chamber of Commerce. She either created or led most of the Chamber's major merchant promotions from the mid-1970s until health issues in her final years as publisher forced her to slow down. The "Scarecrow Spectacular," in which schoolchildren made scarecrows to raise money for their schools was just one example of her ideas and her efforts to help the community.

She directed the Chamber's Giving Tree program for 20 years, providing Christmas gifts for needy families, served as chairman of the Chamber's Merchant's Committee four times, and was honored as the 1998 Woman of the Year by the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber's Air Force Appreciation Day Committee also selected her as grand marshal of the 50th anniversary AFAD parade -- an honor that meant a great deal to her as her father had been the parade's first grand marshal.

She supported the military and was one of the key organizers and co-chairman of the effort to bring the Vietnam Moving Wall to Mountain Home in 2004.

Under her leadership, the newspaper won a number of major awards, including the 2011 Idaho American Legion Newspaper of the Year Award for support of the Legion and the military.

She lived quietly in retirement, dealing with a number of growing health issues, including a successful battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, for which she was in full remission at the time of her death. Her cherished daughter, Stacy, was her companion and caregiver during that time.

She is survived by her daughter Stacy Swenson of Mountain Home; her surrogate daughter, Abigail Townsend of Boise Idaho; sister Pam Bromley of Boise Idaho; brother, Wayne and (Ginny) Waters of Mountain Home; sisters Marla and (Eric) Kessel of Mountain Home; Julie Humphreys of Yakima, Wash.; and Lorraine and (John) Kunze of Maple Valley, Wash.; sister-in-law Martha and (Dan) Hazelbaker; Aunt and Uncle Wanda and (John) Milbert of Potlatch Idaho; Elva and (Lester) McAnulty of Bliss Idaho; Aunt and Uncle Hammond E. and Glenda White of Winfield Ill.; her Mountain Home News family; and also numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John; two brothers, Howard and Martin; and her parents, Lloyd and Vivian Waters.