Katherine Rowe

Katherine, affectionately known to her family as Mimi, was born at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Col. Charles Williamson Glover and Kathryn Daughdrill Glover on December 2, 1930. As the child of an Army officer, she spent her childhood travelling the United States and the territories. Her travels took her from North Carolina to Hawaii, the Panama Canal, Maryland, Oklahoma and finally Marion, Alabama, where her father was a professor at Marion Military Institute. While in Marion, she was named Miss Perry County and later assisted in that organization. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 1952, where she was the University Band Sponsor and Miss Alabama. She was also a dedicated member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. On August 28, 1952, she married Stephen William Rowe in Marion, Alabama. After medical school and his service in the United States Navy, Stephen and Katherine became life-long residents of Gadsden, Alabama where they were instrumental in building their community. Steve and Katherine donated the land for the construction of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Rainbow City and the land for the construction of Westminster Christian School, now Westbrook Christian School.

She was a charter member of the Bal d’Or and of the Antiquarian Society of Gadsden, a member of the Santa Claus Society, the Sew and Go, the James Gadsden Chapter of the Alabama Society-Daughters of the American Revolution, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Alabama, the French Huguenot Society, as well as The Mystery Ball, The Nine O'clock Club, The Regency Club, The Serendipity Club, and the Gadsden Service Guild. She loved skiing in Vail and Beaver Creek, playing tennis with friends on the Gadsden Country Club tennis team, and spending summers at Pawleys Island, South Carolina. She was a life long Episcopalian and a dedicated member and diligent supporter of her beloved Church of the Holy Comforter, where she was a member of Daughters of the King and served on Vestry. Hers was a life well lived in the comfort of her family, friends and the many poodles, West Highland white terriers, and mutts she and Steve adopted over their 55 years of marriage. She will be remembered fondly and with much respect for her gracious southern charm and steely strength of character.

Katherine is preceded in death by her beloved Husband, Stephen, her brother LTC Charles Williamson Glover, Jr., her parents Col. Charles and Kathryn Glover, and a grandchild, Stephen Glover Rowe, Jr.

She is survived by her children: Dr. Stephen Glover Rowe of Jacksonville, Alabama, Dr. Clay Coston Rowe, of Gadsden, Douglass Norwood Rowe, his wife Melissa, of Rainbow City, Alabama, Kathryn Reed Rowe Horton and her husband Harlan, of Farmville, Virginia, her grandchildren: Rebecca Rowe Byrd (James), of Birmingham, Dr. Clay Coston Rowe, Jr. (Jane), of Marietta, Georgia, Stephen Peter Rowe (Addison), of London, England, Charles David Mercer Rowe (Mary Evelyn), of Nashville, Tennessee, Stephen Granville Flournoy Horton (Jessica), of Amherst, Massachusetts, and William Andrew Horton of Richmond, Virginia, a step grandaughter,Tiffany Bryant Ford (Seth), and her great-grandchildren: Henry Clay Coston Rowe, Winifred Katherine Rebecca Rowe, Ruby June Rowe and Frances Sue Byrd, and step great-grandchildren, Zoe Emerson Ford, Eliza Grace Ford, and Miles Justice Ford.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 o'clock, April 29, 2023 at The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, Gadsden, Alabama with the Reverend Carl M. Saxton, II and the Reverend Marian Fortner officiating. Burial will follow at Forrest Cemetery. Arrangements are by Collier-Butler Funeral Home of Gadsden.

The family will receive visitors in the Great Hall at the Church at 11:30, immediately preceding the funeral service.

Memorials may be given to the Church of the Holy Comforter.

The family wishes to extend our sincere thanks to Visiting Angels, and in particular, Melissa Wright, for their kind and loving care of our beloved Mimi.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.collier-butler.com for the Rowe family.