Peggy Joyce Owens

Peggy Joyce Owens was born July 21, 1931, the eighth child of Francis & Nancy Ellison, delivered by a midwife in the small town of Linwood, Iowa. She was raised in Montpelier, Iowa and passed away in her home in Mesa, Arizona on March 3, 2013 after an extended illness. She was 81 years old. As a young woman, she married Don B. Owens in November 1949 and moved to Davenport, Iowa. Peggy was mother to Don Owens Jr., Nancy Jamison, Joanne Owens, John Owens II, and La Donna Carman. She lives on through her daughter La Donna and a brother Harold Ellison; four grandchildren Lorraine Best, Simone Ellsworth, Ryan Tracy and Jerry Gray and two great-grandchildren Jamie and Joshua. In addition to her immediate family, there are numerous nieces and nephews. During her life, Peggy was more than a wife and mother. As a child of the Depression, she learned the value of serving others by helping people within her own community. Later she worked at Lusk Candy Company, using her skills on union negotiations. During her senior years, she looked for ways to help others by volunteering at adult daycare centers, her local church and Hospice in El Paso, Texas and at the Mesa Adult Activity Center making Christmas stockings for homeless children in the Valley. Besides her value of volunteerism, she managed to see four continents traveling first with her husband and in her last 19 years, with her companion, Louis Glomb; however, she would forever comment that the U.S. had the prettiest flag she had ever seen. Memorial services are at Mariposa Gardens Memorial Park and Funeral Care, 6747 East Broadway Road, Mesa, AZ 85206, (480) 830-4422 on March 9, 2013 at 11 a.m. She will be laid to rest beside her husband, Don B. Owens, at Ft. Bliss National Cemetery at a future date. Please visit www.MariposaGardens.com to leave a tribute to Peggy.