Blanche Edna (Montgomery) Cowan

Blanche Cowan, 98, Newton, mother of Alice Stahl, Sedgwick, died January 31, 2001 at Kansas Christian Home, Newton. She was born August 22, 1902 in Washington County, Indiana, near Fredricksburg, the daughter of John Wesley and Mary Elizabeth Moore Montgomery. They preceded her in death. After the death of her mother, she lived with her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Horace Trotter in Hadinsburg, Indiana.

She graduated from Hadinsburg High School in 1920. Following her graduation, she moved to Newton to live with her father. She attended Kansas State University and received her Lifetime Teachers Certificate. She taught in one room school houses and often had to go early to stoke the coals for heat in the building.

On June 1, 1930, she married John Alexander Cowan in Newton. He preceded her in death November 3, 1997.

After raising her children, she went backk to school at Bethel College and graduated in August 1960 with a bachelors degree in elementary education. She taught sixth grade elementary at Roosevelt, Washington, and Lincoln Schools, all of Newton, until her retirement at age 70.

She was a member of First United Methodist Church and the United Methodist Women, both of Newton; the Retired Teachers Association and K.P.E.R.S.

In 1973, she and her husband retired from farming and moved to Newton from the family farm south of Newton.

Other survivors: son, Bruce Cowan, Newton; another daughter, Lois Markley, Howard; four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; four sisters, Edith Shirk; Birdie Hill; Ethel Wait and Lillian Groneman and two grandsons, Jerry Stahl and Mike Cowan.

Services were held February 3 at Broadway Colonial Funeral Home, Newton. Burial was in Restlawn Gardens of Memory.