
'Carrie Ingalls'
'Caroline Celestia "Carrie" Ingalls Swanzey' (
August 3,
1870–
June 2,
1946) was the third child of
Charles and
Caroline Ingalls, and was born in
Montgomery County, Kansas. She was a younger sister of
Laura Ingalls Wilder known for her ''
Little House'' books.
As a child, Carrie (according to Laura) had been thin and frail, and of all the Ingalls, Carrie seems to have suffered the most through the deprivations of
the long winter. Laura remarks in a later book that Carrie "was not recovering from the long winter as she should". Carrie was not constantly ill, but she never did enjoy physically robust health during her life, and traveled to several places in her young adulthood seeking a more comfortable climate, but she always returned to South Dakota.
During her late teen years Carrie was a typesetter for the ''De Smet News'', and later other newspapers throughout the state. On
August 1,
1912 she married widower
David N. Swanzey, who is best remembered for his part in the naming of
Mount Rushmore. She was very enthusiastic about Laura's books and helped her by sharing her childhood memories. She died of diabetes complications in Pennington County, South Dakota on
June 2,
1946, at the age of 75. She was buried in the
De Smet Cemetery. Carrie had outlived the youngest Ingalls child,
Grace, by nearly five years and her death made Laura the last surviving member of the Ingalls family. Her husband David died in Pennington County on April 9, 1938.
On ''Little House'' screenings she was played by
Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (
1974-
1982) and
Haley McCormick (
1997).
External links
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Carrie Ingalls biography
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Carrie Ingalls page
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Caroline Swanzey's burial record at
Find A Grave