Betty Ann Martin Kowis

Betty Ann Martin Kowis died January 29, 2023 in Houston, Texas. She was born to Frank and Maggie Martin on November 15, 1935 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Houston. She grew up on her parent’s dairy farm in Bellaire, Texas. She attended grade school at Incarnate Word Convent and St. Vincent de Paul in Houston. She graduated as Salutatorian from Incarnate Word Academy in 1953. While in school, she was a very accomplished pianist and won many contests and accolades. She served as Prefect of the Sodality of Our Lady. After IWA, she attended the University of St. Thomas on an academic scholarship for one year before she married Joey Kowis in 1954.

After high school, she worked for Offenhauser Company for many years, before joining her family’s business, Westmoreland Farm Dairy. She left Westmoreland in 1970 to help Joey and his father manage K & K Food Market in the Heights. The Kowis family owned and operated K & K Food Market for 62 years. While she was mostly behind the scenes with accounting work at the grocery store, she took a very active role in the Ladies Auxiliary of the Houston Retail Grocers Association. She wrote the monthly “Ladies Corner” gossip column with all the comings and goings of Houston’s grocers. Even after retirement, Joey and Betty Ann remained close to their grocery friends. Betty Ann enjoyed volunteering with the Incarnate Word Alumnae and would regularly meet with high school classmates for lunch. You may also find her heading “East” to play a slot or two at the casinos in Louisiana.

Of course, her most important job was being a wife to Joey and Mom to her 3 children, Douglas, Kenneth, and Lanette and a Granny to her grandson, Jeremy.

Betty Ann is preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Maggie Martin, her husband, Joey Kowis, and her sons, Douglas Kowis and Kenneth Kowis. She is survived by her daughter, Lanette Kowis, her grandson Jeremy Kowis and wife, Leanne, her great granddaughters, Libby Kowis and Maisie Kowis, her daughter-in-law, Lucy Kowis, and her “other son” Michael Watkins.

Visitation will begin at 5 pm on Monday, February 6th, with Rosary at 7 pm at Earthman Funeral Directors, 8303 Katy Freeway. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 am on Tuesday, February 7th, at St. Ambrose Catholic Church at 4213 Mangum Road with committal at Garden at Gethsemane at Forest Park Lawndale cemetery immediately following.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Incarnate Word Academy, 609 Crawford, Houston, Texas 77002.