Baylor Heart Hospital of Plano, Texas
Earl Leroy Rowe was born on February 13, 1924 in Ogden, Utah to Lodasca Williams and Jay Herman Rowe. He was the oldest of six boys: Jay Rowe, Claude Mills, Ed Mills, David Stouffer, Clifford Stouffer and Lewis Rowe.
His family moved to Bitter Creek, Wyoming where his step-father, Claude Mills, worked for the railroad. Since the public school only went to the 8th grade, he moved to Evanston, Wyoming and lived with his Aunt Mildred Cronin (Point of the Rocks, Wyoming). He attended Evanston High School from 9th – 12th grades and graduated on May 22, 1942.
Upon graduation, he went to Utah Agricultural University (aka Utah State University) in Logan, Utah in 1942. Along with the standard college curriculum, he joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program sponsored by the US government to train civilian pilots for military preparedness. In this program, he became an aviation cadet.
On August 3, 1942, he joined the Navy. The Navy sent him to Corpus Christi, Texas where he became a flight instructor on February 29, 1944. He trained pilots for World War II, which he said was a very dangerous job.
On May 10, 1945 he married Billye Frances Fountain Hayley on the Naval Air Base at Corpus Christi, Texas. They have five children: Deborah, Kathleen, Leah, Ellen and Earl Leroy II.
He retired from the Navy in 1947 as a Lieutenant JG. As a civilian, he tried his hand at the restaurant business with his mother-in-law. That lasted about 6 months. Next he opened a lumber business with a partner hauling lumber for construction, which was successful. But he missed flying and enlisted in the Naval Reserves in May 1951. He eventually became the Commanding Officer of an A-4 fighter squadron based in Norfolk, Virginia. On February 13, 1984, he retired from the Naval Reserve.
The family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1958 when Earl took a job with the Federal Aviation Agency. He retired from the FAA in 1978.
The family moved to Vienna, Virginia in 1962 and Earl worked for the FAA in Washington, DC.
In 1966, the family moved back to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and he returned to work with the FAA as the flight inspection field office chief. He oversaw the design and installation of the navigation aides in the instrument landing systems when Dallas/Fort Worth airport was built.
Billye and Earl divorced in 1973. He married Oveta Jean Trussell Ford in June 1978. They moved to Chile that year to work for the United Nations in the International Civilian Aviation Organization. He set up radio navigation and instrument landing systems for flight safety in several countries.
During the retirement years, Jean and Earl bought a fifth wheel trailer and traveled to visit family and friends. He loved visiting and traveling to San Antonio and Las Vegas to see his brother, Lewis Rowe. They also bought a 1958 Bonanza airplane to travel.
Earl was a talented contractor and handyman. In 1985 he started building a house on Cedar Creek Lake in Malakoff, Texas where they enjoyed fishing and golf. After moving from the Lake house in 1988, they spent the rest of the time living in Oklahoma City on Lakepoint Dr. He spent time buying properties in need of repair, fixing them and renting them.
After Jean passed away in July 2008, he started thinking about moving to Dallas to be near Ellen’s family. So in December 2008 he moved in to Frisco Lakes in Frisco, Texas. He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Earl served five 6-month missions at the Bishop’s storehouse in Carrollton. . He also attended the LDS Dallas Temple weekly.
On April 15, 2013, Ellen and Earl visited Nauvoo, Illinois where his ancestors started the long, arduous trek from Nauvoo to Utah during the winter of 1846.
He is survived by:
Deborah Edmonds and her husband Carl of Vacaville, California
Kathleen Gammell of St. George, Utah
Leah O’Keefe and her husband William of St. George Utah
Ellen Sigety and her husband John of Highland Village, Texas
Earl Leroy Rowe II and his wife Jill of Draper, Utah
Dan Ford of Madison, Alabama
Vivian Geeslin and her husband James of McKinney, Texas
Billye Rowe, mother of his five of children
Preceded in Death:
Ovita Jean Trussell Rowe, wife
Patty Mae Ford, step daughter
Two grandchildren, Jason Gammell and Jenna Sigety
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