“Amazing Grace, How sweet her sound…”
Wife of Walter Otto Shwert, mother of four children, grandmother to twelve grandchildren, and great- grandmother to fifteen great-grandchildren, she lived a long and loving life on her terms. Grace lived 99 years with class and style and humility. Making friends and endearing herself to all who knew her, young and old. Throughout her life she set an example for how to live life to the fullest, always
embracing change and learning and exploring what life had to offer. She loved antique furniture and art and decorated her home with them. She collected blue plates, wooden decoy ducks, small vintage Chinese porcelain geese, mermaids and photos of her friends and family throughout the years. Wherever she went she would look for heart-shaped stones to bring home. She valued good rye bread and baked her own apple pie and biscotti from scratch. When she went out for dinner she always wanted to sit at the bar first because that was where things were happening. Some of her favorite places were Bass Rocks in Gloucester and the Wayside Inn in Sudbury. Her favorite singers were Willie Nelson and Andrea Bocelli. She believed in wishing on stars and the spiritual and practical powers of the Lady of Guadelupe. She and Walter loved Manhattans and Chateauneuf-de-Pape wines. She loved to dance, but he was reluctant. They also loved to build houses for themselves. But what they loved most of all was their family and all the joy and love and fun that came from their family life.
Grace was the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family, born May 12, 1925 on Staten Island, New York in the St. George neighborhood a short walk from the ferry to Manhattan. She grew up on St. Mark’s Place overlooking New York Harbor and across the street from St. Peter’s Church, whose schools she attended. While in high school she and her best friend Gloria, who grew up next door to her, would go to USO dances for the GI’s shipping out overseas and corresponded with some of them. She graduated high school in the middle of the second world war and found work at a naval architecture firm in Manhattan where she met her future husband, a design engineer at the firm. When he proposed marriage, she proposed going to college first. He waited while she attended the Edgewood Park School and then in September of 1945 they married.
Walter immediately started building their first house on Margaretta Court, on Staten Island, where they lived for several years. They lived briefly in Newburgh, New York where she gave birth to their first child, also named Walter, and then moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado when Walter began working as a civilian engineer for the US Air Force constructing their Cheyenne Mountain NORAD facility. Grace loved living in Colorado, overlooking the Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak, exploring Aspen and the Rockies. She gave birth to her second and third children there, Mark and Lisa. Then in the late 1950’s the family moved to Framingham when Walter worked at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford.
Here she began to establish her family’s roots that lasted the rest of her life. They lived on Knight Road in the Woodmere neighborhood. Her fourth child, Nancy, was born there. Summers were spent at the Belknap Pool or on the Jersey shore with family. Holidays were often in New York City with family. With their friends and their families winters were often spent skiing in Vermont or New Hampshire where Grace learned to ski along with her children, and summers on the lakes in Maine.
In 1966 Walter and Grace built their second house on the corner of Winch and Grove Streets in Framingham. Over time a barn was built and pastures fenced for the horses that Lisa and Nancy rode. Later, when the horses were no longer there a flock of egg laying chickens were kept, supplying the family with fresh eggs every day. Her house was also home to beloved dogs and cats. Vegetable gardens were always planted and maintained. As her children grew a pool was added and the basement finished to provide room for the children and their friends to recreate. While Walter’s work took him around the world, she stayed at home maintaining the family household. During this time she began her career as a real estate broker. Eventually she established her own office with her good friend and fellow broker Nancy Hofmeister and then, over the years, worked with several other agencies.
In 1978 Walter began an assignment in Germany for the Air Force. While his previous travels were short duration assignments, always done by himself, this time he was able to bring his family with him. For the next three years they lived in a village outside the city of Kaiserslautern. Grace took this opportunity to travel across the countries and cities of Europe, from the Normandy beaches and cemeteries of the war to crossing into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie ten years before the wall came down, from the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France to the alpine towns of Germany and Switzerland, she saw medieval cities, and modern cities, Paris, Vienna. She picked grapes in vineyards, drank beer at Oktoberfest and went on many Volksmarches through the German woods. She visited family relatives living in medieval towns and Dutch friends in Amsterdam that they knew from New York as well as hosting visiting American friends. Following their children’s example, Grace and Walter even got Eurail passes and backpacked around Europe.
Returning to Framingham and with her children on their own she resumed her work in real estate. But the traveling bug was still with her. Over the next years she would travel the US, China and return to Europe to walk the hills of England and to see Ireland and kiss the Blarney Stone. She travel Italy, Austria and Greece. She thought it was a great adventure when she and Walter went on a cruise to Bermuda where the ship ran aground and they had to be rescued at sea. She established a family
tradition of Christmastime Dinners at the Wayside Inn.
After Walter retired in 1985 they built their third house on Grove Street around the corner from the family home. Here her talent for decoration was on display as she shared their collection of things Walter had brought home from his travels and she had acquired from hers. For the last forty years this home would be her treasure where she hosted friends and family for weddings, dinners and so many impromptu family gatherings. Her mother’s 100 th birthday was celebrated there in 1989. It became a second home for her children and grandchildren when they visited from afar. She was a member of the Garden Club and volunteered at the Framingham History Center where she loved to man their table on the Village Green where she could meet new people.
She gladly took care of Walter during much of the 1990’s until he passed away in 2003 from Parkinson’s Disease. On her own after 58 years of a loving marriage she continued to travel and became the matriarch of her growing family. She periodically travelled to California to visit her son and his family there. She returned to Colorado to visit friends and regularly went to Florida to visit her sister and her best friend Gloria. She made a point to attend every one of her grandchildren’s weddings (nine of them), whether on the West Coast, Colorado Rockies or East Coast, and was always the life of the party sharing her Native-American blessing and dancing with all the young people. Up to the very end at the assisted living facility where she lived, she continued to make new friends and impress people with her friendliness and her vitality.
Although her presence is no longer with us, her heart and spirit, her love and energy, her strength and memory remain with us and will continue to inspire us forever.
She leaves her children, Walter A. Shwert (Marianne) of Framingham, Mark H. Shwert (Elaine) of Woodland Hills, California, Lisa M. McGlone (Terence) of Framingham and Nancy E. Chmielinski (Peter) of Byfield; 12 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; many nieces & nephews. Grace was predeceased by her husband, Walter O. Shwert, and her siblings, Henry and Raymond Doody, and Margaret Rogers.
Family and friends will honor and remember Grace’s life by gathering for visiting hours on Wednesday, May 1st at the McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler Funeral Home, 11 Lincoln St., Framingham, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. A private family graveside will be held in Edgell Grove Cemetery, Framingham
Expressions of sympathy may be made to Framingham History Center, 3 Oak Street, Framingham, MA 01702 or www.framinghamhistory.org
To share a memory with Grace’s family, kindly visit www.mccarthyfh.com
Chesmore Funeral Home