By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on August 31, 2024
In a world full of self-centered and superficial people, it is rare and refreshing to meet genuine, generous, down-to-earth, remarkable Americans who embody the core values that impact society in a positive way. During my time on earth, I have discovered this simple fact: The foundation for everything that is good in a person starts within his/her family.
In 2018, Lisa Swoboda took me to Ceresco, Nebraska to meet her parents, William Swoboda, III, and his wife Carol Jean Swoboda (nee Schmidt). The village of Ceresco has a population of 962 people. It is 19 miles from Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the University of Nebraska.
In every sense of the word, Ceresco represents the best of what we call the “Heartland.” The people living there are hard-working, honest, loving, neighborly, and patriotic. They take care of themselves. and each other. They know how to do things for themselves – from ordinary household chores to difficult corporate tasks, all without complaining.
The Swobodas live on a five-acre tract of land off a rural highway. They own this land and made it their family home. I loved it at first sight.
This is the place where Lisa and her three sisters -- Susan, Barbara, and Erin -- grew up. It is also the place where William and Carol successfully transferred their rock-solid values as kind, decent, caring, and loving Americans to each one of their four young daughters.
All of the Swoboda daughters are extremely smart, very thoughtful, loving, confident, cool, and independent. All of them are beautiful women, inside and out.
Lisa is the daughter I fell in love with. We enjoy life together in California. Lisa's love for me (and her Cavalier dogs) is boundless. She is a wonderful woman and a great human being. I am having the best time of my life with Lisa (and her Cavaliers).
William and Carol Swododa are their daughters’ personal heroes, and rightfully so. The Swobodas are good people. They treat everybody with the utmost respect.
An Open Heart Will Always Find True Love
I was born in Parsons, Kansas in 1948, but raised in Montgomery, Alabama and Memphis, Tennessee during the racially turbulent 1950s and 60s. My childhood was full of memories of angry white crowds shouting “two-four-six-eight, we don’t want to integrate” and “Nigger go home.” Signs like the ones depicted in the photo below were everywhere.
I lived under the constant threat of bodily harm or death if I said the wrong thing to any white person or looked at a white woman in the wrong way. Growing up in the South, my parents constantly reminded my brothers and me about what happened to the "Scottsboro Boys" in 1931 and Emmett Till in 1955.
I lived in this precarious environment until I went off to college at Southern Illinois University in 1966. There, I thrived in the world of multiculturalism.
My law school years at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, from 1970 to 1973, were filled with a level of racial hatred that was oppressive and suffocating. They were the three longest and loneliest years of my life. Nevertheless, I survived it.
Every phase of my life in Alabama since childhood was filled with people who hated me solely because I wanted to be judged on the content of my character and not the color of my skin. My mother explained this hatred to me when I was a young child.
Throughout my life, the pretextual reason for this racial hatred has mutated, but the hatred itself has always been present.
Meeting Lisa Swoboda Changed Everything
When I first met Lisa Swoboda, I did not think we had much in common. Our backgrounds were totally different.
It didn’t take long to realize that Lisa and I have everything in common. Both of us have a deep appreciation for America as a nation, for world history, and for documented family history. Both of us have a strong entreprenuerial spirit. Both of us are political independents. Both of us are warriors for social justice. Both of us are grounded in a spiritual life.
Both of us love our large, close-knit families. Both of us are passionate about uplifting humanity. We both stand up every day for the “least of these, my brethren." Both of us read, discuss, and respect diverse points of view on a wide range of subjects. Both of us are programmed to work hard and smart on the things that matter to us. Both of us honor our parents and siblings and hold them in the highest regard. Finally, both of us are "givers," not "takers."
Today, Lisa and I connect on every level that matters.
The Swobodas of Nebraska
When I arrived at the Swoboda home in Ceresco, the first thing I noticed was the complete absence of any racial prejudice in William and Carol. They welcomed me into their home with love and open hearts. They were kind and considerate to me. It was clear to me that they loved and respected Lisa, who is their oldest daughter.
Over the years, I watched William and Carol pour the same amount of love and support into each one of Lisa’s siblings, into their grandchildren (Devin and Reigna), and into their 2-year-old great granddaughter (Xia), as well.
The more I learned about the Swoboda and Schmidt family histories, the more impressed I became. On the Swoboda side, much of this history is chronicled in a fascinating self-published book for family members titled, “A Czech Grandma’s Tale,” by Lisa' aunt, Rosanne Neukirch (nee Swoboda). The book centers on Lisa’s paternal grandparents, Lillian Ludmilla Mae Chalupnik Swoboda and her husband, William "Dude" Marshall Swoboda. They raised 13 children in Verdigre and Battle Creek, Nebraska. Lisa’s father, William, III, was their oldest child.
Dude Swoboda was a World War II veteran who served in the Seabees (the construction battalion of the U.S. Navy). After he was discharged from the Navy, Dude Swoboda worked as a truck driver for a Creamery, a salesman for an investment company, and as president of the Verdigre, Nebraska Improvement Club.
Saving money was a way of life for Dude Swoboda. Eventually Dude saved enough money to qualify him for a loan to buy the controlling interest in Battle Creek State Bank in Battle Creek, Nebraska.
I did the exact same thing Dude Swoboda did. During my career as a lawyer, I saved enough money to qualify for a bank stock loan that allowed me to become the co-founder and majority owner of Alamerica Bank in Birmingham, Alabama.
Both of our banks were successful from day one and continue to operate today (under different ownership).
Carol Jean Schmidt grew up on a farm in Wood River, Nebraska, along with her parents and six sibings. Carol, who is super-smart, met William Swoboda,III, in Lincoln, Nebraska while she was attending nursing school in the city. They married and eventually made Ceresco the family home..
Carol is a truly brilliant woman and a wonderful human being. She instilled her independent spirit in each one of her daughters. She is also their role model for a strong woman.
In Ceresco, I walked around the Swoboda’s property. There is a barn that once served as a storage place for the vehicles repaired in William, III's on-site repair shop for foreign cars. There is a creek that runs through the property where the girls played as children. The acreage is full of trees and open spaces. It was an ideal place for two loving parents to raise four girls in a safe environment.
Each one of the Swoboda girls grew into highly successful, well-mannered, independent women. The Swoboda and Schmidt family names are well-respected in Nebraska.
Paying It Forward
William Swoboda, III, died in March 2023. Carol Jean Swoboda is now the family matriarch who carries on the tradition of guiding and supporting the Swoboda daughters along the road to success in life. Carol is a constant source of knowledge, wisdom, and strength for her daughters.
The Swobodas are a great American family. I admire and respect them alot. Interestingly, I have never heard William or Carol Swoboda degrade or disparage any person at any time.
The Swoboda family works every day to make this great nation a better place for those who are less fortunate. Perhaps, one has to struggle in his/her own life to appreciate the struggle in the lives of others.
I constantly praise Carol Swoboda for the way she and William raised their four daughters. I am a firm believer that parents need to smell the roses while they are alive.
As such, I dedicate this article to Carol Jean Schmidt Swoboda for a job well done.