Lorraine Yvonne Swift Abbott

Lorraine Yvonne Swift Abbott
(November 8, 1926 – June 11, 2021)

Lorraine Yvonne Swift Abbott (age 94) departed this earthly life and went to her eternal reward on June 11, 2021. She left behind her husband William Paul Abbott, her son Richard Neil Abbott, and her brother Virgil Neil Swift – along with numerous nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews, cousins, in-law relatives, and friends – all of whom she loved very dearly. She also left behind former co-workers in the business she founded – Katie Ingersoll, Mary Bryant, and Amy Reed – as well as long-time neighbors Sue and Carolyn Wilson. She was preceded in death by her parents Virgil Swift and Edith Isabelle Jackson Swift and by her brothers, Aubrey Earl Swift and his twin Kenneth Merle Swift.
Lorraine was born on November 8, 1926, in the town of Owasso, Oklahoma. In the fall of 1944 she boarded a train and travelled to Maryville College in East Tennessee, where in 1946 she met her husband Paul, a World War II Navy veteran who had enrolled in Maryville College on the G.I. Bill. Lorraine graduated from Maryville College and married Paul in May of 1948, and they remained married for the next 73 years. Beginning in 1948, Lorraine embarked on a long career as a technical writer and editor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, focusing most of her efforts on publications related to reactor shielding. In 1986, she retired from ORNL and began a second career as the founder and leader of a technical communications company that focused primarily on the oil and gas industry. She retired from that second career in 2016 at the age of 90.
Lorraine joined Inskip Methodist Church (now Cedar Lane UMC) with her husband in 1952, and she remained an active part of that congregation until her death. For many years she was also a member of the board of directors of Partners for Children, a nonprofit child development center currently located at Cedar Lane. One of the last things Lorraine said to her family was “take care of the little children.” Accordingly, the family asks that in lieu of flowers, gifts be given in Lorraine’s memory to Partners for Children, Inc., 714 Cedar Lane, Knoxville, TN 37912. A graveside service will be held at Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, TN, at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, June 15. A celebration of life service will be held at Cedar Lane UMC at a later date.
Philippians 1: 21 – For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.