Kathleen Swanson of Clara City, Minnesota and formally of Valley Springs, SD died unexpectedly on May 27th, 2021 at the age of 70 while vacationing with family in Florida. Kathy was born on February 13th, 1951 in Kansas City, MO to Carol (Barnes) and Elmer Hopper. She was raised and educated in Sioux Falls and graduated from Washington Senior High School in 1969. She then attended college and began working at McKennan Hospital. She became a legal secretary for Bruce Blake for many years until his retirement. Kathy later began a career as a medical transcriptionist with Sioux Valley Hospital and retired from Sandford medical transcription in 2011 to provide care for her husband due to his health issues. Kathy was united in married to James Tupy on September 2, 1983 and the happy couple made their home in Valley Springs. After 12 years of marriage, she was widowed at the age of 44. Later in life, Kathy met her sweetheart, Gene Swanson, and they were married on her birthday-February 13th, 1998 at the Beaver Valley Lutheran Church in Brandon, SD. Grateful for having shared her life are her daughter, Sarah (Donn) Holmes of Clara City, MN; step-children, Tony (Susan) Tupy of Sioux Falls, SD; Kevin (Delena) Tupy of Sioux Falls, SD; Kerry Tupy of California; Sonya Swanson of Garretson, SD and Zach Swanson of Valley Springs. 14 grandchildren-Tyler, Molly, Taia, Curtis, Brooks, Tristan, Alexandra, Andrew, Logan, Dominik, Danny, Savannah, Gavin and Owen. Kathy is also survived by her sister, Kim (Paul) Gotmer of WI, brother, Mark Hopper of Sioux Falls, brother, Marlon (Mary Jo) Hopper of Colorado and sister, Jodie Geske of Minnesota.
Kathy was preceded in death by her mother, Carol Geske, her husband, James Tupy, and her husband, Gene Swanson as well as her step-son, Owen Swanson.