St. E’s records first baby born in 2009

YOUNGSTOWN — Only blocks away from the site of Youngstown’s New Year’s ball drop to ring in the new year, one city woman was celebrating her own new beginning: motherhood.

Not long after the fireworks and countdown to 2009 had ended, 23-year-old Deborah Owrey came to the end of more than 19 hours of labor in her hospital room at St. Elizabeth Health Center.

Partner Adam Swauger by her side the entire time, the two are now the proud parents of a brown-haired boy named after his father.

Adam Swauger, Jr.’s birth at 1:43 a.m. today made him the area’s first baby of the new year — an added surprise for his parents, who didn’t expect either the Jan. 1st birth or the attention it received.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” said a resting Owrey, who said the two were given gifts from the hospital and a few early-morning visits by television news crews.

For the complete story, see Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com