Corona del Mar’s first mail carrier passes away

Stefanie Frith

Harold Swanson, the first mail carrier in Corona del Mar, died

Thursday of lung and liver cancer at his Corona del Mar home. He was 85.

Swanson is survived by his wife, Dorothy-Jo, 85; two children, Don

Swanson and Alexandra McKay; three grandsons and two grandchildren.

Swanson and his wife met in high school in Gerry, Ind., and were

married for 63 years. Swanson was a mail clerk for the United States Post

Office in Indiana and in 1949, requested a transfer to California. Corona

del Mar was in need of a mail carrier, and Swanson took the job.

“Oh, but he hated walking,” Dorothy-Jo Swanson said Saturday. “He was

the first one in Corona del Mar, but he only did it for a month because

he wanted to be a mail clerk again. And this was during the time when the

houses didn’t even have numbers.”

Swanson retired from the postal service in 1970, and he and Dorothy-Jo

spent much of their time together going on cruises, 31 in all. The last

cruise they took was in December to Oregon to reminisce about Swanson’s

family history. Swanson moved with his family from Sweden to the United

States when he was seven, and his father had gone to Oregon to help build

the atomic bomb.

Swanson also ushered at Catholic churches in Orange County and was a

speaker for Alcoholics Anonymous for 23 years, going to meetings three

times a week.

Dorothy-Jo Swanson said she and her husband have always been very

active in the community. She ran a dance studio in Corona del Mar for 38

years.

“Harold had a favorite T-shirt,” she said. “It said, ‘When I die, I’ll

go to heaven because I married a dance instructor.’ I am going to save

that shirt. I know he’s in heaven now and not just because he married

me.”

A memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Feb. 20 at Our Lady

Queen of Angels in Corona del Mar. In lieu of flowers, donations should

be sent to Hoag Hospital Cancer Center.