Judith L. Swinderman, 78, New Jersey teacher, church choir director

Judith L. Swinderman, 78, of Mount Laurel, a South Jersey music teacher and choir director at various churches, died of complications from hip surgery Monday, Aug. 23, at Samaritan Hospice in Mount Holly.

Though Mrs. Swinderman started her music career later in life, she was a natural when it came to singing, said her husband, Daniel.

She became part of the Singing City choir in Philadelphia, traveling with it to Russia on a three-week performing tour, and other area choirs.

In the 1970s, she enrolled at Glassboro State College and received her teaching certificate.

Mrs. Swinderman taught music in the Newfield School District for several years. She then worked at a few other schools in Camden County before taking the music teacher job at Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden.

Despite having some challenges at Wilson, Mrs. Swinderman loved her students, her husband recalled.

"The students who wanted to learn were really interested and would ask to come [during] lunch," he said.

After about five years at the high school, Mrs. Swinderman retired in the early 1990s.

While teaching, she also worked as a choir or youth director at churches.

She was initially choir director at her church, First Baptist in Merchantville. Then she went to First Baptist in Collingswood to be youth director. In that role, Mrs. Swinderman expanded the program and started a tradition of an annual musical.

"She had God-given talent to work with youth," said Barbara Quinter, a Collingswood church member. "She was just dynamite."

The elaborate musicals took months of planning and prop-making, Quinter said. But Mrs. Swinderman directed a good show, which led her to be senior choir director during her last few years at the church.

"Music was Judy's life, her passion," Quinter said.

In the late 1980s, Mrs. Swinderman worked at a Lutheran church in Pennsauken.

Judith L. Brown was born in Camden and had lived in Merchantville since she was 10. She graduated from Merchantville High School in 1949.

She met her husband through membership in the Philadelphia Tower Club. She was 6 feet tall, and Daniel Swinderman is 6-foot-6. They married in 1952.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Swinderman is survived by a son, John; a daughter, Nancy Christy; three sisters; and two grandchildren.

Friends may call after 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 27, at First Presbyterian Church, 20 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, where a celebration of her life will begin at 11. Burial will be at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Arneytown.