Charles Robert Swain was born May 23, 1926 on what was then called Church Street, now Potomac Street, in Boonsboro, MD. His family lived in a few houses around town, including next to the old schoolhouse on Potomac Street until he was a teenager at which time they moved to S. Main Street so his mother could operate a restaurant there.
His parents were Garrett Mortimore Swain originally from Sharpsburg and Margaret Imogene (Jones) Swain of Clevelandtown Road in Boonsboro.
He attended Boonsboro schools, fell in love with Betty Ilene Poffenberger of Sharpsburg and went to fight in World War II in his senior year. He went to basic training in South Carolina and was sent into combat in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front, as part of the 87th Infantry Division, 345 Regiment of the U.S. Army.
He told himself at the time he wasn’t going to make it to his 19th birthday but, he made it to 95. Betty waited for Bob to return and tie the knot. They were married 70 years and according to Bob, Betty was “the purdiest thing you ever saw.” Bob was her constant companion, seeing her through Alzheimers for several years before she passed in 2018.
Bob remembers the principal at Boonsboro High School, his mother’s restaurant on Main Street, his grandmother’s restaurant in Hagerstown, and the memorable highlights of his service overseas, though like many of his generation he does not talk about the “bad stuff”. He remembers one especially poignant day at Christmastime while he was in Germany near the end of the war. Sleeping on the hard ground with few hot meals, they found themselves in a damaged church with an organ and a soldier that could play it. They began to sing Christmas hymns and, to their astonishment, the local German people began to appear in the church with them to sing. A heart-warming experience that brought them together in a place torn apart by war.
Bob is a lifelong member of Trinity Lutheran in Boonsboro and several service organizations, including the Queen Esther Chapter of the Eastern Star, the Masonic Lodge and the Shriners, all of whom Bob says people don’t understand the depth of their good work.
Give a listen to exerpts of his interview, recorded in his kitchen in St. James (a few miles from Boonsboro), with Kristin Bowl on behalf of the Boonsboro Historical Society.
* Note: Bob Swain passed away on April 14, 2022 at the age of 95 still baking cakes for good causes and enjoying the company of his little dog Mary.
