Marguerite C. Rowe

CHAPIN - Marguerite Clark Rowe died Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at Palmetto Richland Hospital after five years of declining health. She was two weeks into her 90th year, and during her last days, she was surrounded by family, people she loved. And they did love her.

They knew her by many names: Mom, Mimi, Meg and Aunt Meg. She was the family’s matriarch, the giant in their lives. She was a short, petite woman with a big heart. She married a handsome soldier at age 18, a tobacco farmer’s son from South Carolina she met at a dance. Together, they raised three children and saw the world.

She became the quintessential Army wife, the patient mother, the wise grandma. She could cook, sew, pack, dance, sing, teach Sunday school and manage a tax office. She saw the beauty in crunching numbers and the fun in raising long-haired dachshunds.

And yes, she could bake one mean German chocolate cake.

She maintained a disciplined household full of love, and she moved her family back and forth to Germany twice and to Army bases nationwide where all her three children were born – her oldest son, Nat, at Fort Sill, OK.; her only daughter, the middle child, Alexandra, at Fort Bragg, NC; and her youngest son, Jeri, at Fort Monroe, VA.

Meg Rowe was preceded in death by her husband, retired Command Sgt. Major Nat Rowe; her son, 2nd Lt. Nat Rowe Jr.; as well as her parents, Floyd and Gwendolyn Clark; her brother, Floyd Jr.; and her four sisters, Greer, Edie, Betsy and Jackie.

She is survived by her daughter, Alexandra Rowe and her son-in-law, William Rivers, of Columbia; her son, Jeri, and her daughter-in-law, Katherine Wilson Rowe, of Greensboro, NC; and her three grandchildren, Nicholas Krapels, of Shanghai, China; and Wilson Alexander Rowe and Elizabeth Moss Rowe, of Greensboro.

A graveside memorial service will be held July 12, 2014 at Live Oaks Cemetery in Charleston, S.C., one of her favorite cities, the city where she raised her youngest son. She’ll be buried between two men much loved – her oldest son, Nat, on her left; and her husband, Nat, her constant dance partner, on her right. Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, Chapin Chapel is assisting the family with arrangements.