Obituary of Mary F. Owen

UPDATE - December 18, 2009 DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER - THE FUNERAL MASS FOR MS. OWEN ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY HAS BEEN POSTPONED. A NEW DATE AND TIME WILL BE ANNOUNCED. Mary Theresa Ford Owen, age 85, of Doe Drive, Boone, died Friday, December 11, 2009 at her home. She was born May 24, 1924 in Janesville, Wisconsin to Leo James Ford, Sr. and Grace Garin Ford. Mary attended Edgewood College of the Sacred Heart, the University of Wisconsin, and completed a dietetic internship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. She did graduate work at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Mary served as president of the Milwaukee Dietetic Association and later of the Charlotte Dietetic Association. She worked at Milwaukee County Hospital, the University of Wisconsin Hospitals, Theda Clark Hospital, and the Milwaukee County Children's Home in therapeutic and administrative dietetics. In 1958, she traveled to Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, where she worked for the Arabian American Oil Company. She met electrical engineer James Clarke Owen, a native of Asheville, in Arabic class in Abqaiq. They were married at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy, on November 11, 1958. Their three daughters were born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. She and her husband bought land in Watauga County in 1967. In 1969, Jim took early retirement, and they moved to Boone to build their home. After her children were in school, Mary became a consultant dietitian at small hospitals and nursing homes in central and western North Carolina. She was preceded death by her grandparents, William and Mary Ann Devine Ford and Michael and Mary Ellen O'Leary Garin; by her parents, her husband, James Clarke Owen; her brothers, William Michael Ford and Leo James Ford, Jr.; her brother-in-law Kenneth Cummins; and her sister-in-law Catherine Hughes Ford. Mrs. Owen is survived by her sisters, Rose Ford Cummins and Rita Ford Guernsey and husband, Anthony, all of Janesville, Wisconsin; one brother Jerome Henry Ford and wife, Julie, of Elgin, Illinois; three daughters, Kathleen Owen, an engineer at RTI and Rebecca Owen, an administrator at the Cystic Fibrosis Center at UNC, both of Cary, and Angela Owen, office manager in the department of Physic and Astronomy at ASU, of Boone. Also surviving are three grandsons, Benjamin Woodard, a house painter, of Raleigh, Brian Myer and wife Mafalda, physics instructor at ASU, of Boone, and Joseph Owen, and wife Allison, engineering and physics student at UNC, of Charlotte; and by one granddaughter, Miranda Owen, forth-grader at Hardin Park School, of Boone. Mary is also survived by her god-daughter, Colleen Mary Cummins of Madison, WI, and by "adopted" families, the Vinh Thai family of Lenoir, and Wesley and Debbie Miller of Charlotte, as well as by about a jillion nieces and nephews in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and beyond. She was a member of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church and of the Democratic Women, taught English-As-A-Second language for 18 years, and was one of the original members of the Institute for Senior Scholars. Mary had a wonderful life and loved to tell everyone about it, including how she won the "best baby" contest at the Rock County Fair in 1925. Her life will be celebrated at the 5 o'clock Mass, Saturday, December 19, 2009, at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, officiated by Father Joe Mulligan. A catered dinner will follow services at St. Elizabeth in the Pat Jones Hall. Entombment will be at the Mount Lawn Memorial Park and Gardens Mausoleum. In lie of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Community Care Clinic, Post Office Box 1148, Boone, NC 28607. Online condolences may be sent the family at austinandbarnesfuneralhome.com. Austin & Barnes Funeral Home and Crematory is serving the Owen family.