NC S549

Honors the life and memory of Martha Maxine McMahon Swalin for her contributions to the North Carolina Symphony.

Recognizes Swalin's role in reviving the dissolved North Carolina Symphony in 1939 alongside her husband Dr. Benjamin Swalin, serving as an accompanist and later as coordinator and executive assistant.

Acknowledges her establishment of the children's concert division in 1945 and involvement in securing the "Horn-Tootin' Bill" legislation that provided state appropriations and recognized the symphony as the nation's first state symphony.

Notes her numerous honors including the North Carolina Award for Public Service (1989), Duke University honorary doctorate (1979), and the North Caroliniana Society Award (2003), and that an annual music educator award bears her name.

Swalin died October 8, 2009, at age 106, and the Swalin Lobby at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh was named in honor of her and her husband.