Tressa Bailey was born on July 15, 1908, in Arbon, Power County, Idaho. She married Royal Oscar Swenson in Malad, Idaho, and together they farmed 160 acres in Arbon Valley, a remote area about 40 miles from Malad. Their five children — Robert Dean, Janiel, Twila, Royal Jay, and Doyle LeGrande — were born and raised on the farm, attending the small local school and traveling to Malad for town supplies and church.

The family later left the farm and settled in Malad, where Tressa’s home became the center of family gatherings for the Swenson and Phillips lines. Janiel’s story describes her mother’s house in Malad as a place of constant hospitality; Tressa’s own diary from the early 1960s records a life of church attendance, family visits, Relief Society meetings, and the rhythms of a small-town LDS community.

Norman Harker, who visited Tressa’s house in Malad with Marilyn in the early 1970s while they lived in Pocatello, remembered her as “a real nice sweet gal, portly, always had an apron on at home.”

Tressa Bailey Swenson died on October 24, 1974, in Idaho Falls, Bonneville County, Idaho, less than six months after the death of her husband Royal. She was buried at Malad City Cemetery on October 28, 1974. The diary she kept is one of the primary sources for the Swenson family line in this archive.