The Express-Star
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Funeral services for Virginia Mae Smith Rowley, age 80, of Edmond, will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church, 2115 Mullins Ave., Alamosa, Colorado.
Mrs. Rowley died Friday, August 6, 2010, at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. She was born April 22, 1930 in Sayre, the daughter of Charles M. and Bernice W. Smith. As a young girl, she moved throughout Oklahoma and Kansas with her family.
After attending Clinton Public Schools until her senior year, she graduated from Chickasha High School in 1948 and went on to attend the University of Oklahoma in Norman before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from the former Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha in 1953, and her Masters degree from Adams State College in 1970. She married Philip D. Rowley on April 16, 1955 in Chickasha and began her working career at OG&E in Oklahoma City. Education was her chosen profession. Over the years, she held teaching positions in Oklahoma, Michigan and Colorado, retiring from the Monte Vista, Colorado Public Schools in 1944.
She joined the United Methodist Church in 1941. A singer, she performed in the church choir, Sweet Adelines and Alamosa's Vocal Variety.
Preceding her in death were her parents; her husband, Philip; and a son-in-law, Tim Hogue.
Survivors include four children, Karen Parsons and her husband, Jason, of Murphy, Texas, Jon B. Rowley of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Susan Rowley of Alamosa, Colorado and Steven Rowley and his wife, Abby, of Colorado Springs; three grandchildren, Cayce Hogue, Caden Rowley and Kyle Rowley, a sister, Joyce Allison of Clinton; sisters-in-law, Mary Hoatson-Bayes, Gael Anisworth, Martha Lively and her husband, Jim, Claudia Ward and her husband, Paul, Lisette Young and her husband, Dick; a brother-in-law, Charles Curtis; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Rogers Family Mortuary in Alamosa, Colorado. The family suggests donations in her memory can be made to the First United Methodist Church, to that church's Beaver Creek Youth Camp Scholarship Fund, PEO Scholarship Fund or to the American Heart Association in care of the funeral home at 205 State Ave., Alamosa, CO 81101.
