Shirley Jean Dahnke-Swanson was born April 26, 1937 in Sutherland. Shirley attended grade school in Sutherland and in country schools south of Hartley. She graduated from Hartley High School in 1955 and attended Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, majoring in Education.

Shirley accepted a fourth grade teaching position in Primghar where she taught until 1959. On June 14, 1959, Shirley married Gary Swanson and began their 62-plus year life as one. They moved from Spencer to Vermillion, S.D. where Shirley taught fourth and third grades while Gary went to school. Their first child, Mark, was...