Fiskdale: Marilyn "Swan" Swanson Mills, 79, of Fiskdale, Massachusetts, died peacefully October 28 at home surrounded by her loving family.  She had fought a 23-year battle with meningioma and was known for her positive attitude under difficult conditions. The daughter of Arthur Wilson Swanson and Helen Key Swanson, she was born March 23, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts. Growing up she lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

She graduated from Weston High School in 1958 and from Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, in 1962, where she majored in art with a teaching minor.  After graduation, she began a teaching career in art studies in the Boston school system. In the summer of 1958 in Cape Cod she had met her future husband, Paul A. Mills, of Southbridge, Massachusetts. They were introduced by a mutual friend who needed her support after he had run his father's Chrysler 300 over the Mills' bird bath. The connection was immediate and a four year collegiate romance ensued. Months after college graduation they were married May 15, 1964 in an impromptu wedding days after Paul's Air Force Officer commissioning and were an inseparable, loving couple for 56 years. Swan enjoyed teaching overseas in Japan and in the Philippines during her husband's four years of military assignments during the Vietnam War.  After returning to the States, Swan and Paul lived in Southbridge, Massachusetts.

Her son, Alden Morris Mills was born 1968 and son, Andrew Swanson Mills was born 1970.  She, Paul and family enjoyed spending summers at their family summer homes on Cape Cod and at Big Alum Lake, Sturbridge, where her sons enjoyed countless hours of water activities on and under the water.

A devotee of opera, Swan loved Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston, the Sarasota and Worcester opera companies and the New York Metropolitan Opera.  For 50 years, she enjoyed reading aloud current and avantgarde domestic and European plays with the Sturbridge Playreaders.  As a member of the Elm Street Congregational Church Women's Fellowship, she led teams that provided weekly luncheons for the Rotary Club of Southbridge.  She especially enjoyed trips to Colombia and Peru to visit relatives as well as extensive world travels.

Swan was preceded in death by her parents, Arthur and Helen Swanson.  Survivors include her husband, Paul Mills, of Fiskdale; sons Alden Mills and his wife Jennifer of Kentfield, California, and sons Henry, Charlie, John and William; and Andrew Mills and his wife Alexandra of Southborough, Massachusetts, daughter, Alexis, and sons Christopher and Wyatt.

A private family celebration of Swan's life will occur next year. The family suggests donations in her memory be made to Ruth D. Wells Art Center, 111 Main Street, Southbridge, Massachusetts 01550 (or to an art charity of your choice).

The Daniel T. Morrill Funeral Home, 130 Hamilton St., Southbridge, is directing arrangements.