Friends of an innocent mother killed on a southern Butler County road Wednesday night when a car plowed into her Jeep said she dedicated her life to her children.

“Her kids were her life,” said Beth Yost of her best friend, 36-year-old Hannah D. Swigart of Butler. “She did everything with them. She took them to church every week. She baked with them. She prayed with them.”

State police said Swigart died about 11:15 p.m. when Michael H. Reid, 38, of Butler Township may have purposely caused a head-on crash on Route 68 in Forward Township.

Investigators have not ruled out that Reid, who often spoke of suicide, wanted to kill himself when he crossed into Swigart’s opposing lane and caused the wreck.

Swigart left behind her husband, Joel, and three children: Ella, 11, Lillian, 8, and Adele, 19 months.

“She adored her children,” said a family friend. “She was always doing something innovative and creative with her children.”

The friend, who lives in Ohio, like several others who spoke lovingly of Swigart, requested anonymity, citing her family’s wish for privacy.

They, too, admitted being stunned by news of their friend’s tragic death.

“Family was everything to Hannah,” said another friend, from Butler. “All her free time she spent with Joel and those kids.”

Swigart’s family declined to comment. So, too, did her pastor, Gary Koontz of Christ’s Outreach Church in Butler.

But a friend and fellow church member described Swigart as “God-fearing and God-loving.”

Police said Swigart was driving home from work when she was killed. She worked as a supervisor at the United Parcel Service distribution center in Jackson Township.

Friends said she worked the afternoon shift so she could spend more time with her children.

“She was the most positive person I ever met,” said the friend from Ohio. “She was always upbeat and always doing things for people. She was an exceptional young woman.”

Swigart practiced charity and was a cheerful volunteer.

“She was always at school, volunteering for her kids,” Yost said.

Swigart served in the nursery at her church and in 2010 pitched in to help the Butler City Shade Tree Commission plant trees, flowers and shrubs on the hillside at the east end of the Wayne Street Viaduct.

“This has been fun. It really has. Now, we can drive by every day and see the beauty,” Swigart told a Butler Eagle reporter at the time, for a story about the project.

Not surprisingly, she brought one of her children, Lillian, then 4, with her, as a life lesson in the pleasure of giving to others.

Yost also recalled how Swigart selflessly cared for Joel’s elderly aunt in Butler, who died last year in her 90s.

“She took her to the doctor and shopping and did whatever she could,” Yost said. “And she did it because it made her feel good to help.

“That was Hannah.”