Ellen Gay Smith Bowman, 97, recently of Pinehurst, NC, died peacefully at home in Wadesboro, NC on the morning of Friday, June 25, 2021.
Born April 25, 1924, to Mary Ida Lindsay and Benjamin Franklin Smith, Gay spent much of her youth in Pinehurst where she was fated to meet her husband, Bill Bowman, a paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg, at the local bowling alley. After they married in 1948, the GI Bill took them to Illinois, his home state, where they both attended the University at Champagne-Urbana. His experience with UNIVAC in the mathematics department brought them back to North Carolina, this time to Chapel Hill, where he aided the Census and she took classes at UNC. The applications of his work took them to various locales in the DC metro area, and eventually to Gay Goose Farm in Warrenton, VA, where they raised their family. Gay’s desire to be closer to her brothers and sisters brought them back to the Pinehurst area in 1978, where she lived until the spring of 2021. After the untimely death of the love of her life, she cultivated an amazing community of friends, was very involved in a variety of organizations, and honed her skills as a poet and writer.
Gay is preceded in death by her beloved husband, her sons Gus and Peter, her daughter Tamara, and her parents and five siblings.
She is survived by her son, Thomas Lindsay Bowman, his wife Carolyn, their children Spencer and Sarah, her granddaughters Lindsay and Cinnamon, her great-grandchildren Louis and Magnus, and scores of loved ones and friends.
Visitation will be held at Galatia Presbyterian Church, 8800 Galatia Church Rd Fayetteville, NC 28304 beginning at 3:00 pm with the funeral starting at 4:00 pm.
Reception to follow at 210 Brent St Wadesboro, NC 28170.
Memorials to Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities
Care of the family is entrusted to Crumpler Funeral Home-Aberdeen.
