Hall of Fame 2005
Carolyn Heebner Swift
Class of 1966
Born at Watsonville Hospital in 1948, Carolyn (Heebner) Swift first lived in her late great-great
grandmother's house on Bockius
Street.
The home was situated about halfway between the high school and the
Pajaro
River levee, in a
blue-collar community of Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Latinos, and Anglos. The
mix of cultures allowed her to observe the lifestyles of young classmates whose
customs differed from her own.
Moving with her family to La Selva in 1956, she rode an ancient bus to
Aptos School and was fascinated by the ghost town aura of
Aptos
Village. The hills nearby
were edged with concrete foundations, rusted railroad track, dilapidated fruit
stands, abandoned motor courts, and corroding farm equipment.
Entering Watsonville
High School in 1962, Carolyn was
delighted when her first classes were in the old building (corner of Marchant
and E. Beach) that had, for the previous three years, housed Cabrillo College. She knew by then that the history
of the place she lived in was inviting and mysterious. But with no ready
opportunity to pursue it, Carolyn spent time instead on the basics of English
and art. As it turned out, these skills have come in handy. Nonetheless, seeking
the office of class historian in high school was her only outward, and
unconscious, move toward a future career. Carolyn graduated from WHS in
1966.
As a history major at Cabrillo College, Carolyn did well enough that a
professor suggested her name for a job opening at the Watsonville
Register-Pajaronian. Although she had yet to learn typing, she was hired. She
picked up the necessary skills for writing and layout with the help of Marybeth
Varcados, who edited Carolyn’s first byline story in 1969. She stayed with the
paper twelve years, assigned to a weekly publication called the Green Sheet,
covering Aptos, Soquel, Capitola, and Live Oak.
Always interested in Cabrillo's history classes, Carolyn enrolled in
Sandy Lydon's "Santa Cruz County History" in 1975. The course provided the broad
and pertinent overview she needed to start her own historical investigations.
Later, Carolyn co-authored with Lydon the book, Soquel Landing to Capitola
By-the-Sea.
During the Seventies, Carolyn also became involved with the resurgence of
the women's rights movement, serving as co-coordinator for the Santa Cruz County
Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1973-74. The
organization’s accomplishment that year was a statewide "counter-celebration" to
the Miss California Pageant, held during its 50th anniversary
ceremonies in Santa
Cruz. Carolyn remained loyal to causes involving women,
and later worked with Judith Steen on the introduction to Georgiana, Feminist
Reformer of the West, the Journal of Georgiana Bruce Kirby, published in
1987.
Over the years, she's written articles on Santa
Cruz County history for
numerous publications, including a column for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Carolyn
continued collecting photographs, researching, and writing about Capitola
history, and in 1993 became director of the Capitola Museum. Working at related interests, she
served twice on the Santa Cruz County Historical Resources Commission. In 2003,
Carolyn wrote the City of Capitola
Historic Context Statement, which assists the evaluation
of historic properties. As a member of the Santa Cruz County Museum of Art and
History's landmark committee, it has become her favorite project to help expand
the number of historic buildings in Watsonville that are honored as distinctive
structures.
Believing it's never too late to accomplish a goal, and really desiring a
college degree, Carolyn went back to school, graduating in 2002 from UC Santa
Cruz with honors in Community Studies. Previous to this - and 23 years after
their 1978 divorce - Carolyn remarried Steve Swift. Today they live off
White
Road, near Watsonville. She looks forward to volunteering
one day to assist Jane Borg at the Pajaro Valley Historical Association. Carolyn
states, "Watsonville is my hometown. I feel a strong
allegiance to it. No matter how far back in its history or near to the future
one goes, the story is complex, diverse, and deserving to be told."
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