Carrie Ingalls
Not to be confused with her mother, Caroline Ingalls.
Carrie Ingalls Swanzey | |
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Born |
Caroline Celestia Ingalls August 3, 1870 Montgomery County, Kansas, U.S. |
Died |
June 2, 1946 75) Keystone, South Dakota | (aged
Resting place | De Smet Cemetery |
Spouse(s) |
David N. Swanzey (1912–1938, his death) |
Relatives |
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Caroline "Carrie" Celestia Ingalls Swanzey (/ˈɪŋɡəlz
Biography
As a child, Carrie Ingalls Swanzey (according to her sister Laura) had been small, thin and frail, and seemed to have suffered the most of all the Ingalls family members through the deprivations of the hard winter of 1880–81. Wilder remarks in a later book that Carrie "was not recovering from the hard winter as she should" (Little Town on the Prairie, chapter 12). Swanzey was not constantly ill, but she never enjoyed robust physical health during her life. She traveled to several places in her young adulthood seeking a more comfortable climate, but always returned to the harsh winter climate of South Dakota.
During her late-teen years Swanzey was a typesetter for the De Smet News and, subsequently, other newspapers throughout the state.[1] On August 1, 1912, at age 41, she married widower David N. Swanzey (1854–1938), who is best-remembered for his part in the naming of Mount Rushmore. She became mother to Swanzey's two children: Mary Swanzey (1904-1969, married Monroe Harris, 14 children) and Harold Swanzey (1908–1936). Harold was one of the workers who helped carve Mount Rushmore, and his name can be found on the granite walls below the monument. He was later killed in a car accident. David Swanzey died in Keystone, South Dakota on April 9, 1938.
With her sister Grace's help, Carrie took care of their blind sister Mary after their mother's death in 1924.
Carrie was enthusiastic about her sister's books and helped her by sharing her childhood memories. Like Grace and Laura, she suffered from diabetes, and died of complications from the disease in Keystone on June 2, 1946, at age 75. She was buried in the De Smet Cemetery. She outlived her youngest sibling, Grace, who also died of diabetes complications, by nearly five years.
In the media
Carrie was portrayed in the television adaptations of Little House on the Prairie by :
- Twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels
- Haley McCormick in Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder part one movie
References
- ↑ Benge, Janet and Geoff (2005). Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life. YWAM Publishing. ISBN 1-932096-32-9.
External links
- Carrie Ingalls page
- "Carrie Ingalls". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 10, 2010.