Jacqueline Rowe Gonzalez

Jacqueline Anne Rowe was born on June 25, 1938 in Hampton, Virginia to Alfred and Mildred Rowe.

She graduated from Hampton High School in 1956 and married the love of her life, Homero A. Gonzalez, on November 3, 1956. She often said, “I married the love of my life and there will never be another.”

Jacqueline became the consummate military wife, where she was able to use one of her biggest gifts: hospitality. Additionally, she was President of the Protestant Women of the Chapel at March AFB in Riverside, California. As her family moved from place to place around the world, she made each move an adventure.

She graduated from Hendrick Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1976. She worked for Dr. George Dawson and taught his OB classes. She later worked at Abilene State School as a pediatric medications nurse.

In the early years, as a faithful member of First Baptist Church, she sang in the sanctuary choir, substituted in the nursery and taught Vacation Bible School. She was a member of the Primetime Sunday School Class, the Prayer Room Ministry, and served on the Bereavement Committee. She and her husband volunteered with Hospice of the Big Country. Following her husband’s cancer journey, Jacqueline started a personal cancer ministry at First Baptist Church, where she wrote countless cards and visited cancer patients. She later volunteered at First Baptist Church’s City Light Community Ministries, where she visited with and scheduled appointments for the homeless.

Jacqueline, an avid quilter, was a member of the Prairie Star Quilting Group for years. She also loved to travel, play the piano, write poetry, embroidery, crochet and knit.

She was the ultimate caregiver. Jacqueline is preceded in death by her mother, Mildred Rowe, whom she moved to Abilene and cared for until her death in 1985; she never left her husband’s side during his two battles with cancer and ultimate death in 1995; and she cared for her father, Alfred Howe Rowe, until his death in 1998.

Jacqueline is survived by one sister, Barbara Rowe Morgan and her husband Thomas; one daughter, Deborah Gonzalez McFarland and her husband, Daniel; two sons, Homero A. Gonzalez, Jr. and his wife Karen of Rochester, New York, and David Marcos Gonzalez of Abilene; and her grandchildren: Melia Adrianne McFarland of Fort Worth, Miles Gonzalez McFarland and his wife, Erica, of Las Colinas, and Jordan Tayler Gonzalez and Mason Rowe McFarland of Abilene.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the City Light Community Ministries’ Good Cheer Fund or the Jacqueline R. Gonzalez Endowed Memorial Scholarship at Hardin-Simmons University.