Olive was the daughter of Milton Monroe Young and Clara Ethel (Dougherty) Young. She was born on September 2, 1911 in a farmhouse south of Bremen, Indiana. She married Beuford Rowe on November 29, 1934. They were married for approximately 66 years when Beuford died in 2001.
Olive graduated from Bremen High School in 1929 and was the last surviving member of her class. After high school, Olive went onto receive a teaching degree from Manchester College. She taught primary school for about four years at the Muncie school located five miles south of Bremen. Even after her time as a teacher ended, Olive took great joy in educating young children for all her life.
Olive Lorene Rowe passed away peacefully at the age of 104 in Tulare, California on December 18, 2015.
Olive’s best work was done during the time she spent as a farmer’s wife, full-time mother, and grandmother. Olive was a crucial partner in helping with the success of the farm. She was a loving mother and grandmother. She was always willing to do whatever it took to help her children succeed in life. On top of being responsible for motherly duties inside the household, Olive would cook for everyone including the hired help and watched the grain dryer at night while everyone else got some rest. In addition to the great love and compassion with which she lived every day of her life, she will always be remembered for her excellent wit and everyday jovial spirit.
Olive was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Beuford; her sisters, Mary Cripe and Ruth Young; two of her sons and their wives, John & Daniece Rowe and Bill & Gloria Rowe; and one grandson, Brad Lisk.
She is survived by two of her children; Linda (James) Lisk of Cincinnati, Ohio and Curtis (Shannon) Rowe of Corcoran, California; eleven grandchildren; thirteen great-grandchildren; and ten great-great-grandchildren.
There will be a memorial service at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Bremen at a later date.
The family requests that memorial donations in Olive’s name be made, in lieu of flowers, to Corcoran High School Academic Boosters PO Box 51 Corcoran California 93212.
