Mary E Owens

Mary Owens (“Met”) passed away peacefully at her home in the country near Hutto on February 16, 2011. She was born near Woody Creek in eastern Montana on February 20, 1922 to Ira Noble and Emma Grant Kellogg, the second youngest of seven children. Her farming family had left southern Missouri in 1914 with eight of her mothers' siblings and their families to receive two sections of land each and try to grow and market crops, but it proved a difficult challenge. Eventually all of the family succeeded and did well, but barging wheat down the treacherous Missouri and the extreme heat and cold conditions altered their farming aspirations. Mary started school in a buggy with her sisters and cousins to a one-room schoolhouse, with one teacher for all grades. When she was seven her father was elected County Treasurer in Garfield County and her family moved to Jordan, where in a few years they had their first electricity (but no indoor plumbing). She excelled in high school, won medals in state interscholastic league and played sports, and upon graduation in 1942 became the war rations administrator, “the sugar girl,” for the area. In 1944 she joined the U.S. Army's Signal Corps, studied crytography, and was assigned to the Pentagon. There she met and married 1st Lt. Jack Owens, a Special Missions pilot at nearby Bolling Air Field, and soon began a family and the life of an Air Force officer's wife.

After living on air bases in Chicago, Long Island, Ft. Leavenworth, Anchorage, and San Antonio, Mary probably was her happiest when her family was stationed in London in the mid-1960's. She found a nice garden house in Ruislip Manor, Middlesex, made many friends, and, with kids out of school, she wandered the small villages of outer London searching for antiques, brass-rubbing in old churches, visiting castles and pub lounges. She also toured the capitals of Europe and hosted relatives who came to wander and visit family roots in Essex. It was a grand life experience and she carried it with her.

Upon returning to the United States, she and her husband, Lt. Col. Jack Owens, settled in San Antonio at Kelly AFB and then retired to a picturesque property near the Guadalupe River outside of Hunt, Texas. She was an active member of the Hill Country Arts Foundation, was an accomplished painter, won several awards for her beautiful gardens, and played a lot of bridge. After 25 years in the hill country, and with the garden well running dry, she and Jack moved to Sun City in Georgetown. She made many good friends there, especially in her weekly bridge group. She and Jack moved last year, in hospice, to Hutto in a new house behind her son, and managed the move and new landscaping well. Mary was a caring, creative, and engaging person. She loved to make things, to cook and host parties, to read and be engaged in world events. She loved decorating for the holidays, celebrations, good food, good company, and helping others. She was an avid Democrat, revering FDR for his help and leadership during the hard times of the Great Depression.

Mary was married for sixty-three years and her husband, Jack, passed away last summer. She is survived by her sons Brian, of Austin, and Bill, of Hutto, her daughter-in-law Elaine, her grandchildren Scott of Santa Fe, Lee of Santa Cruz, CA, Jake and Kasey of Hutto, her sisters Virginia Osborn and Ruth Maxie, her brother George Kellogg, sisters-in-law Elvira Kellogg and Phyllis Kellogg, and numerous nieces and nephews, as well as her dear friends, Patty Petroski and her daughter, Claudia. Her family would like to especially thank Vanessa, Cheryl, and Maria of Scott & White Hospice for their kindness and care. Mary's ashes will be interred along with her husband Jack's at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Arrangements by Cook-Walden Davis Funeral Home, 2900 Williams Drive, Georgetown, Texas 78628 (512)863-2564.