Mary Sweet

Mary Heath Sweet, 97, of Monterey, died Tuesday, July 15, 2003 at The Springs Nursing Center in Hot Springs. She had been declining in health for several years and suffered a hip fracture July 7.

Mary Heath Ochiltree was born December 14, 1905 in Avoca, Iowa, the last of three children of Robert S. and Anna Randall Ochiltree. After graduating from Avoca High School in 1924 with a normal training certificate, she taught in the one-room rural schools of Pottawattamie County, Iowa for four years. She attended the University of Omaha part-time while teaching and then full-time in 1928-29, earning a two-year degree, qualifying her to teach in Council Bluffs schools, which she did for two years. In August 1931 she took a position with the Pekin American School in Peking (now Beijing), China where she taught third- and fourth-grades to international students. About a quarter of her students were Chinese with the rest from the foreign community in Peking.

While in China she met Lewis K. Sweet of Brownwood, Texas, who was in China practicing pediatrics at the Peking Union Medical College. There were married December 23, 1933 and returned to the United States the next year. They lived first in San Antonio, then in Tahlequah, Okla., before moving to Arlington in 1938, when Dr. Sweet was appointed chief of pediatrics at Gallinger Hospital in Washington, D.C. Their only child, John Robert Sweet, was born September 27, 1938.

They moved to Falls Church in 1948. Dr. Sweet took a position with the National Institutes of Health in 1950 but died later that year. Mrs. Sweet had been a homemaker and mother since leaving China but now had to return to teaching, this time in the Arlington County schools. She attended summer school at George Washington University and received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1961. She taught fourth-grade at McKinley Elementary School from 1950 until retiring in 1970.

After retirement she began tutoring Asian refugees from the Reugee Center in Arlington, helping them to learn English and adapt to life in the United States. She also worked as a volunteer at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington for over 20 years, until moving to Monterey in 1991. She was active in the Monterey Garden Club for several years until declining health restricted her activities. She was cared for at home by a wonderful group of women until being hospitalized after her fall.

Mrs. Sweet is survived by her son, John R. Sweet, and his wife Charolette, of Mustoe, three step-granddaughters, and five step-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in by her husband, her older sister Margaret Rogerson, and a brother who died in infancy.

A memorial service will be conducted in Monterey in early August. Memorial contributions may be made to The Highland Education Foundation, McDowell, Va. 24458.