Grace Bowen

Grace Bowen, one of seven children of Norman Franklin and Eva Jane (Palmer) Wight, was born near Rogers, Arkansas on November 5, 1911. Grace attended Little Flock country school near her home. This one-room school was also the community church and was a focal point of the Wight family life. On November 10, 1928, Grace and Marvin Mansel Bowen were married at her parent's home near Rogers, Arkansas. Marvin and Grace established their first home at Shamrock, Texas. They later relocated to Farmington, New Mexico and in 1932 moved to Henderson, Iowa. They were drawn to Iowa during the fall corn harvest and rural Henderson would become their life-long home. Their marriage was blessed with daughters Wanda Lee and Diane Marie. Grace was a mother, homemaker, and farm wife who helped with the farming, raised chickens, and took care of a large garden. In the 1940's, Grace provided room and board for an oil drilling crew of six men from Oklahoma. The men each paid $3.00 a day and boarded with the family for nearly a year. Grace was an active member of the Henderson Christian Church where she belonged to the Christian Women's Fellowship. She also belonged to the Mother's Clu...[more]

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nd Golden Club of Henderson. Grace enjoyed embroidering and tending to her flower and vegetable gardens, and spent many enjoyable hours quilting with her friends. Grace and Marvin had been married 33 years when Marvin died from a sudden heart attack on June 17, 1962. Grace continued to live on the family farm and eventually moved into a home in Henderson. On December 10, 2001, Grace moved to the Red Oak Rehabilitation and Care Center. Grace died on March 2, 2003 at the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital in Red Oak, Iowa at the age of 91 years, 3 months, and 27 days. Grace was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sisters Helen Winchester, Lena Fuzzel, and Dora Colwell, and brother Everett Wight. She is survived by her daughters Wanda Williams and her husband Arnold of Henderson, Iowa and Diane Curtis and her husband James of Seattle, Washington; granddaughter Debra Williams and grandson Ronald K. Williams and his wife Kathy all of Emerson, Iowa; "adopted" granddaughter Linda Olsen of Red Oak; step grandchildren David Curtis of Issaquah, WA and Rachel Cox and husband Gary of Adin, CA; great granddaughters Jennifer, Melody, Bailey, and Erin; sister Agnes Garrett of Lowell, Arkansas; brother Carl Wight and his wife Pauline of Rogers, Arkansas; nieces and nephews; other relatives and friends.