Maxine M. Ward, 1938-2026

Maxine Marilyn (Swett) Ward, longtime bookstore manager at Southeast Community College, community organizer, and surrogate mother to hundreds of homesick students, died Feb. 6, 2026, at the age of 87.

She was born on Aug. 11, 1938, to Kyle R. and Clara (Naiman) Swett. She lived on farms near Endicott in the 1930s and 1940s, attending school at Endicott and then at District 63. When her father and a partner opened a service station in Fairbury (it eventually became Swett’s Standard Service), the family moved to a small house near City Park. She attended Park School until sixth grade.

Before seventh grade, the family moved to a house on F Street, and she walked to junior high and then high school, usually with a saxophone case in one hand and a lunchbox in the other. She played in the marching band, sang in the choir, and performed in school plays. She also worked part time at Hested’s department store and Woods Theatre in Fairbury.

She graduated from Fairbury High School in 1956 and Fairbury Junior College in 1958, with a diploma in secretarial education.

While in college, she noticed a tall, shy draftsman and city engineer named Homer Ward, and she and friends often cruised the town in hopes of running into him. They married on June 1, 1958, at the United Methodist Church in Fairbury. They had three children, naming them with alphabetical consistency: Douglas, Diane, and David.

She worked as a secretary at Fairbury High School and as a bookkeeper for the racetrack at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, where she also sold concessions during races. She later worked as a bookkeeper at the Jefferson County Superintendent’s Office and eventually became director of the county spelling contest.

In 1958, she contracted polio and had to be carried from the apartment she and Homer rented on H Street and transported to the Fairbury Hospital. A community polio fund managed by the Fairbury State Bank paid for her hospital bills. Although she never suffered debilitating effects, she experienced lingering back pain and difficulty walking, especially later in life.

In the 1960s, she served as president and secretary-treasurer of the Fairbury Mrs. Jaycees, and was chosen as Outstanding Mrs. Jaycee of 1961. She was elected vice president of the state Mrs. Jaycees in the early 1960s, the first member of the local club chosen as a state officer.

In 1972, she began work as the bookstore manager at Fairbury Junior College. The early store was in a Quonset hut on the grounds now occupied by Jefferson Intermediate School. It later moved to the lower level of the main college building on K Street. She also served for 10 years on the board of the Mid-States Association of College Stores.

In addition to being the official bookstore manager, she was an unofficial advisor and life counselor to anyone who sat on a tall stool near the cash register. Hundreds of students left the store with school supplies, a pat on the butt, and an understanding that a sympathetic ear was always available. Many students said her support and guidance allowed them to stay in school and eventually graduate. She retired from SCC in 2003 after 31 years, with students and colleagues honoring her as the Campus Mom.

While at FJC and SCC, she was a long-time sponsor of the cheerleaders and the booster organizations known as the Blue Coats (for men) and the White Coats (for women). She led them on many journeys to out-of-state basketball tournaments in Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas.

In the early 1980s, she began taking classes part time through Peru State College after Peru began offering satellite classes in Fairbury. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1987, crediting her success to teachers like Ken Walkington and Charles Barringer, who tutored and supported her.

In 1986, after the SCC Board of Governors voted to close the Fairbury campus, she joined hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and Fairbury residents in efforts to keep the campus open. They conducted protests, rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, and letter-writing and calling campaigns. When that effort failed and the college was moved to the grounds of the former Pershing College in Beatrice, she reluctantly began commuting. She ran the bookstore at SCC-Beatrice from the fall of 1986 until her retirement in December 2003.

She thrived on pageantry and never missed a chance to decorate and dress up for a celebration or holiday party. She was especially fond of anything glittery, be it a formal black dress or an around-the-house sweatshirt. When Homer was elected mayor of Fairbury in 2007, she quickly declared herself First Lady, using the opportunity to meet, greet, and hug anyone from congressmen to business leaders to children who moped along behind their parents at city events.

She was constantly involved in city life, including the Mrs. Jaycees, the Miss Nebraska Pageant, the Parent-Teacher Association, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, the March of Dimes, and PEO. She volunteered to help screen children for amblyopia, raised money for the March of Dimes, and quickly volunteered to help nearly any civic project. She was involved in 52 Club, league golf, and league bowling. She played in a bridge club and played saxophone in the city band. She was also deeply involved in activities at the United Methodist Church, organizing such events as the Holiday Bazaar and other fundraisers, singing in the choir, and playing piano and organ.

After retirement, she continued active engagement in church and community, often wondering how someone who was retired never seemed to have time to slow down. She served as a student mentor and treasurer at the Methodist Church. She took up scrapbooking, often joining scrapbooking events in Fairbury and Beatrice. She never ran out of scrapbooking material, having collected thousands of photographs and dozens of boxes of clippings documenting the lives of her family and the history of Fairbury and Jefferson County. Much of that memorabilia has been donated to the Fairbury City Museum.

She was preceded in death by Homer, her husband of 66 years. She is survived by her children, Doug Ward and his wife, Juli Warren-Ward of Lawrence, Kansas; Diane Young and her husband, Doug Young, of Broomfield, Colorado; and Dave Ward and his wife, Mandi, of Spencer, Iowa; and grandchildren Sydney (Young) Whitehead and her husband, John Whitehead of Denver; Isaac Ward of Kansas City, Mo.; Emma Ward and her partner, El, of Chicago; Grant Ward and Isla Ward of Spencer, Iowa; and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral Services will be held on Friday, Feb. 13th at 11:00 am at the Methodist Church in Fairbury. Family will greet friends Thursday evening from 5-7 pm at Gerdes-Meyer Funeral Home in Fairbury. Burial will be at the Fairbury Cemetery. Memorials can be made to family's choice. Even better, you can honor Max’s memory by volunteering in the community and giving someone a hug.