Addie Peed Swearingen

Who was Addie Peed Swearingen?

Addie Peed Swearingen was a former beautician who became a philanthropist to Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell and Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas. Swearingen and her husband, William "Hub" Swearingen, became wealthy through purchasing land and mineral rights, mostly in Eddy County in eastern New Mexico. When petroleum and natural gas deposits were discovered on Swearingen lands, the income produced enabled Swearingen to become a benefactor of various causes.

Swearingen was born in Leon County near Centerville in East Texas to John Oscar Peed and the former Mary Lee Rodgers. The Peeds settled in the town of Elida in Roosevelt County, where Addie attended several rural schools and completed high school. She attended beauty school in Roswell and worked for twenty-eight years as a beautician in Santa Fe, thirteen of those years at the La Fonda Hotel. She returned to Elida in 1960 and lived with her mother until the family ranch was sold in 1979. She then settled in nearby Portales, the seat of Roosevelt County.

Swearingen endowed scholarships to support students at Eastern New Mexico University in the fields of nursing, the fine arts, accounting, and other academic programs. She donated funds for the ENMU pipe organ and displayed her own art collection there, including paintings by Peter Hurd. In 1983, she received the ENMU Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award. She was again recognized as the ENMU Foundation's Philanthropist of the Year in 2002. In addition to her support of ENMU, Swearingen contributed the first scholarship awarded to a female cadet at New Mexico Military Institute. She was also a donor to the music program at Church of Christ-affiliated Lubbock Christian University. Her Addie Swearingen Foundation provides scholarships to assist Roosevelt County High School students from the villages of Dora and Floyd as well as Portales and Elida.