Rowena Stenis

Among so many other things, Rowena was a beloved matriarch, a teacher, a musician, and poet with two published books.

Tom Basil Stenis, her devoted husband of 70 happy years, affectionately calls her his “Sunshine,” and says, “Her poetry will live on to tell people about Jesus, even though she is gone. She’ll be a sunshine for many, many years.”

Rowena was born to Irving Smith and Hazel Ingram in Norman, Oklahoma, on September 27, 1922.

She taught music in Lubbock Public Schools for 12 years and in Austin for one year.

Rowena played in the Lubbock Symphony for 37 years, in the Austin Civic Orchestra for about 20 years, and for roughly 25 years, in the orchestra at Great Hills Baptist Church, where she also taught Sunday school and directed a children’s choir.

She is survived by Tom, their four children: Melody Phillips, Vaughn Stenis, Bonnie Walvoord and Wayne Stenis, as well as her brother Llewellyn Smith, 11 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening, on Monday, the 12th of May 2014, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

A funeral service will be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, the 13th of May, 2014, at Great Hills Baptist Church, 10500 Jollyville Road, Austin, Texas. Interment will follow in Cook-Walden Capital Parks Cemetery, Pflugerville, Texas.

In Lieu of flowers, Tom requests that donations be made to a college music scholarship fund in Rowena’s name through Great Hills Baptist Church.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com.