Margaret Swabey BEBEE 

Margaret Swabey Bebee, age 87, died October 25th at Vashon 
Island Elder Care with family at her bedside. A Washington 
native, Margaret was active in promoting family-centered 
maternity care, natural childbirth and breastfeeding, 
focusing on empowerment of women in their families and in 
the world. An organic gardener and healthy eating advocate 
when they were called "health food nuts," she and husband 
Bob Bebee were early members of local co-ops Group Health, 
PCC and REI. A founder of the Childbirth Education 
Association, which taught generations of women to birth 
their babies naturally and promoted breastfeeding during 
the era of "better living through chemistry," Margaret's 
career as a labor & delivery registered nurse provided 
gentle support for birthing mothers at Northwest, Swedish 
and Group Health Hospitals. Born in the lumber town of 
Snohomish to Laurence A.W. Swabey and Katherine Randall 
Swabey on 7 March 1922, Margaret was orphaned at age two 
when her mother died suddenly, leaving her British-born 
husband with three young children. Margaret and her 
brothers were soon sent to the Good Shepherd Home in 
Seattle, and later Margaret moved to the Sacred Heart 
Orphanage. Her widowed father's regular visits brightened 
those orphanage years. Since orphans were segregated by 
sex, those visits meant seeing her beloved brothers as 
well. At age ten she moved to thefirst of several foster 
homes in Seattle, where she was reunited with her older 
brother. Their younger brother had died in the orphanage. 
A subsequent foster family spent summers at Port Madison 
on Bainbridge Is., where Margaret discovered her love for 
Puget Sound and learned organic vegetable gardening, and 
canning and food preservation. Her father married Grace 
Worthington when Margaret was 14, and she and her 
surviving brother were thrilled to rejoin their father, 
now working for the Pope & Talbot lumber mill in Port 
Gamble. She attended North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, 
Garfield in Seattle, and after her family moved to a 7-
acre dairy and chicken farm, graduated from Kirkland High 
School in 1940. Margaret attended the University of 
Washington, making several lifelong friends, and then 
transferred to the diploma nursing program at Virginia 
Mason Hospital, living in a student nurses residence at 
the Sorrento Hotel. During World War II she served in the 
Cadet Nurse Corps. Margaret met her husband of 56 years, 
Bob Bebee (who predeceased her), on a blind date in 1944, 
and they married in 1945. Their first jobs after Bob's 
discharge from the U.S. Coast Guard after WWII were at the 
Tatoosh Is. Weather Station, releasing weather balloons. 
Margaret told of getting on and off rocky Tatoosh in a 
basket suspended from a crane on a Coast Guard supply 
vessel. After a stint in Port Angeles, where Bob was a 
harbor pilot and Margaret worked at the small local 
hospital, they settled in Shoreline to raise their family. 
Margaret was active with the Washington State Nurses 
Association which was then working to establish retirement 
plans and pensions for nurses through their hospital 
employers. Her community activities included the Puget 
Sound Live Steamers Association and the Puget Sound 
Historical Society. An active hiker into her 70s with a 
circle of hiking buddies gathered from among her hospital 
colleagues, Margaret also was an avid reader, a devoted 
thrift store shopper, a member of the Lake Forest Park 
Garden Club, and a regular adopter of homeless pets. Her 
grandchildren fondly recall her keeping a dead bird in the 
freezer until they got a chance to marvel at its delicate 
beauty. Margaret loved being a mother and grandmother and 
is greatly missed by all those whose lives she touched 
with her practicality, can-do attitude, sweet nature and 
generosity of spirit. For the past seven years Margaret 
lived on Vashon Island. She is survived by daughter Andrea 
Avni and son-in-law Bart Arenson, Vashon; son Brian (Nick) 
Bebee and daughter-in-law Deb Bebee, Duvall; and 
grandchildren Nicole Randles, Jordan Bebee, Marisa Alunni, 
Colin Bebee, Austin Bebee, Yael Kallin, Ben Avni and Isaac 
Avni; and two great-grandsons. The family is grateful to 
Vashon Community Care Center, Island Elder Care, and 
Providence Hospice for their affectionate and attentive 
support. A memorial gathering to honor Margaret's amazing 
life will be held at Havurat Ee-Shalom, 15401 Westside 
Hwy, Vashon Island, on Sunday Nov 29th, 12:00-3:00 p.m. 
Remembrances may be sent to Pasado's Safe Haven or an 
environmental charity of your choice. Please visit our 
online guestbook at www.islandfuneral.com. 

Published in The Seattle Times on November 15, 2009