Jean Rogers Lowry

Jean Rogers Lowry, 90, passed away peacefully on July 27, 2024. Jean will be remembered for her intense wanderlust, tenacity to lifelong learning, and foundational support of her beloved husband Murrill and their four children. Jean and Murrill's marriage and devotion to each other for 62 years epitomized the heights love can reach between two people who cherished each moment together and were always a team.

Jean was born to Andrew Jackson (Jack) Rogers and Jane (Safford) Rogers in Bloomington, Indiana. Her parents also maintained a permanent residence in Nashville, Indiana. There, her father established The Nashville House hotel and restaurant with Fred Bates Johnson in 1927. Jean and her brother Andy attended University High School in Bloomington but on weekends and during most of their free time, they romped around the hills of Brown County. As a young mother, Jean immersed her children and friends in this wonderfully wild and artsy community, nestled next to Brown County State Park, with its vast array of rugged hills, trees, and ravines. Vibrant memories of Jean and her family hiking trails, canoeing lakes, exploring towns, or feasting in sundrenched meadows were captured in photos that adorned the Lowry home. Time with her brother Andy in his tucked-away-in-the-woods log cabin home is forever a treasured part of Rogers' influence on our family.

Jean met Murrill in a Comparative Anatomy class during her sophomore year at Indiana University. In her words, she "was smitten, fascinated by his accent...I was on track to try for medical school. We started dating. Two different people: Murrill grew up on a farm and had a simple background of hard work in the cotton field and I was a city girl with many advantages and interests." They suited each other admirably. From their wedding date on August 14, 1954, Lowry adventures and world travels began.

Not long after her wedding, Jean planted a permanent flag as a resident in Indianapolis, Indiana. Indiana was her home and leaping off point for travels stretching from England and Ireland to Italy, France, China, Spain, Greece, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia. Just about any remote or undiscovered place in the world with a great bed and breakfast or a compelling description in the Michelin travel guide was fair game.

If there was one constant trait with Jean, it was her penchant to always be reading a good book (or pile of them) and sending off batches of long letters or ornate postcards. She was a great writer, sharing fascinating tidbits of her travels with friends or thanking and keeping those she met on her journey as new life-long friends and permanent holiday card recipients.

Since 1961, Jean was a proud member (and past President) of The Indianapolis Woman's Club (IWC). Her mother was also a member. The IWC was founded on February 18, 1875, and its purpose was, and remains, the exchange of ideas through presentation and discussion of papers. Many tales of her adventures were captured in papers she presented to the club. Not only are they fascinating snapshots of the past, but the writing and descriptions are so pure and vivid, you can easily step into the frame of her memories and see the mountains, rivers, majestic vistas, food markets, people, cultures, and places she describes. And if words were not enough, there were always (millions of) pictures, slides, posters, and memorabilia gathered from her trips and packed in every corner and closet of her homes.

At our longtime home on Washington Boulevard, the basement fridge was primarily to store film. Jean had a keen eye for capturing places and people with her cameras and one was always in her hand or on a table not too far from reach. Though overwhelming in the number of photos and photo albums she passed down (almost always double prints!), the spirit of love she conjures up in her pictorial documentations is endearing and true to who she was, a great friend to all she met in all corners of the globe, and, if you looked her way, there would be a shutter click or flash photo to prove it.

Travel, arts, music, live theater, and time on front porches with friends and family were her hallmark. This germinated in her early days in grade school where she was immersed in lots of music: orchestra, singing programs, individual instruments, and piano lessons. She was a very good piano player but did admit to having a "fairly good ear." This allowed her to practice far less than she should as she would ask her teacher to play a piece she struggled with and then could easily repeat the melody. Once settled in her favorite home in Indianapolis, she was able to find and rescue her childhood piano and restore it to its original glory. The baby grand has now been passed on to a new family at the Washington Boulevard residence in what will always be "The Music Room."

One of Jean's favorite places was Wading River, New York, where she spent summers as a young girl after the untimely death of her mother at an early age. She spoke fondly of memories there with her Uncle Frank and his family. Over the years, she collected iridescent shells, filled transparent glass containers with them and turned them into lamps as gifts for her children - an enduring memento. In Wading River, she loved the sun setting over the water (and taking thousands of photos with array of cameras), fishing, and just being caught up in moments of swirling sea salt air and sounds of her own children dashing and playing in the waves. After she married Murrill, adventures in Wading River continued when they dog/house sat for a 4-year stint for Ebby and his wife Jeanne, who travelled off to Africa.

More adventures were abundant as Jean welcomed her children into the world and Murrill, as a professor, had summers and sabbatical opportunities to empower her to take them. Jean was adept at finding a way, no matter how many little ones were in tow, of travelling the world. And if it was a little daunting to still be a mom and world-traveler, she would simply bring their favorite caregiver, Violet, along to help shepherd the Lowry clan!

One family adventure that stands out as a beautiful example of our family travels was our summer in Ireland in the early 1970s. How did we get there? Jean saw an ad looking for farm hands. She and Murrill discussed it, and agreed four strong kids and their own work ethic qualified us as a "farm hand" family. Staying in a 250-year-old thatched roof farmhouse (with the resident bull on one end), we worked, played, worked some more, and relished an unforgettable summer in Ireland. Living on a 200-acre dairy farm, we shared it not only with the cows, but with so many whippets, greyhounds, and Irish wolfhounds, you could only walk the dogs by learning to ride a motorcycle and herding them through the lush, green rolling hills of the farm. With a babbling and sharp winding river running through the farm, we spent many days fishing or walking the paths through the deep grassy cow trails to our favorite wild raspberry bushes. Ireland was the perfect example of the many undiscovered worlds Jean brought to life for her family and the vast cultures, accents, and lifestyles which all became infectiously delightful and remain treasured memories of our world adventures.

Returning home from Ireland, Jean received a gift from our host, Wendy Howell. In a crate marked from Tipperary, Ireland, was a small curled up whippet puppy. This triggered a long history of whippets in the Lowry household, and unlike one of Jean's first dogs, Thor (in Jean's words "a beautiful but stupid boxer"), our whippets (Jameson, Donnon, Scarlett) were some of the most genteel, beautiful, friendly, and easy dogs to spoil (including allowing them to sleep under the comforters on every bed).

Jean is survived by her four children: Philip, Kent, Stuart, and Joanna; as well as six grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Jean left behind a legacy of love to see the world as well as arming all her children with college degrees, shelves of great books, and a zest for the unconventional and exploring undiscovered places. While many things have changed for world globetrotters, with no more need to carry large cameras around our necks or batches of maps in our backpacks, the spirit of living life to the fullest and discovering friends along the way remains a constant.

Whenever we think about adventures ahead, we will always hear the whisper of Jean's voice in our head as we plan our trip. "Yes, you should go! You'll have no regrets."

A celebration of Jean's life will be held on Saturday, October 26, 2024, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at The Indy Arts Center in Broad Ripple (820 East 67th Street Indianapolis, Indiana) where friends are welcome to gather for a toast to her wanderlust life.

In lieu of flowers the family requests gifts to the Murrill and Jean Lowry Endowed Scholarship Fund at Butler University or the Multiple Myeloma Research Fund at Indiana University:

Checks to Butler should be made payable to Butler University and in the memo portion include IMO Jean Lowry/Murrill & Jean Lowry Endowed Scholarship Fund

Office of University Advancement

Butler University

4600 Sunset Ave

Indianapolis, IN 46208

Gifts can be made online and designated as stated above: butler.edu/gifts

Please check the box “Dedicate my donation in honor or memory of someone”, complete the online giving form and the gift will be allocated to The Murrill and Jean Lowry Endowed Scholarship Fund.

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Gifts to support multiple myeloma research should be directed to Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in honor of Jean Rogers Lowry.

https://give.myiu.org

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Multiple Myeloma Research Fund