Luetta Bowen

After 97 years of brightening the world, Luetta June (Smith) Bowen died Oct. 30, 2025, from complications of a fall four weeks earlier. 

Much of her life was centered on children, both her own six and the hundreds of others that she taught. She loved young children and loved teaching them to read and write. She remembered every student and followed their lives, including sending each a card when they graduated from high school (if she knew the address). She was proud of all their accomplishments.

Her career began in 1950 in the basement of the old Carnegie Library in Portland teaching kindergarten after she graduated from Ball State Teachers College with an elementary education degree. She next taught kindergarten part-time at Pennville for five years while working on her master’s degree, which she completed at Ball State in 1964. Finally, she taught first grade at General Shanks Elementary School for 29 years, starting her tenure in 1964, the same year the “new” school opened.

After her teaching days concluded in 1993, she brushed off her sales-clerk skills to work at Bearcreek Farms for eight years simply because she loved being around people and wasn’t ready to sit down. She learned those sales skills when she clerked at the Boston Store every weekend during her college years.

Born May 30, 1928, at home in Madison Township, she was a lifelong resident of Jay County and a 1946 graduate of Portland High School. She was surprised and honored to receive the DAR Outstanding Citizenship Award her senior year. In addition, she was the secretary-treasurer of her senior class, a responsibility that she took seriously, for she communicated with her classmates and coordinated that class’s reunions for the next 70 years.

As the school fight song goes, “We’re loyal to you, Portland High,” and she was. She remarked earlier this year that attending Portland High School was the best thing that ever happened to her because she received a scholarship to Ball State that prepared her for a professional career and she met her future husband, Roger, who was vice president of the senior class. She attended all but two Portland High School alumni banquets between 1946 and 2025, primarily so she could see all the people — especially her former students — that she knew.

From her earliest years growing up on farms in Madison and Pike townships with her parents Harold and Grace Smith and sisters Ruth Evelyn and Thelma Mae, Luetta always had her hands in the earth, planting a large vegetable garden and flowers each year. She shared the beauty of her bounty by taking gladiolas to the local hotels to be placed on their front desks for many years. No one ever asked her to do this; she simply thought flowers were a welcoming touch for out-of-towners.

She loved to bake, especially cookies, and kept an assortment in the freezer to share with workers or others who came to the house. Her family enjoyed them too! She was known for her homemade noodles and delectable pie crusts. Both were staples of holiday meals, which she hosted for the extended family for the past 35 years.

Luetta was always active in the community, often serving as secretary-treasurer of an organization, notably the Jay County Retired Teachers Association and the Stitch and Chatter Quilt Club. The Cincinnatus League honored her in 2015 by naming her to its Hall of Fame for a Lifetime of Service.

After retiring from teaching, she began quilting, meticulously completing 16 full-size, hand-stitched quilts to leave as a legacy for her family because she had admired the quilts created by her grandmother Smith. (Luetta was named after her two grandmothers, Harriet Louisa Smith and Etta Sheffer, by the way.) A large painted quilt adorns the barn at the “Bowen’derosa” to mark it as part of an area quilt trail.

She loved portraying “Miss Abigail” in the pioneer schoolroom at the Jay County Historical Society’s annual Heritage Festival for many years. She also enjoyed helping to prepare for mailing the organization’s monthly newsletter until she stopped driving at age 94.

Joining the Gamma Alpha chapter of Psi Iota Xi philanthropic sorority in 1951, she attended almost every meeting for decades, possibly just to get a Monday evening away from her family’s demands.

Luetta was a woman of deep faith. Only illness made her miss Sunday services at Center EUB Church (which she began attending after her 1950 marriage) and then returning to Asbury United Methodist Church (the church where she was married June 25, 1950) after Center closed in 2017. She helped with Vacation Bible School for many years and taught a children’s Sunday School class in addition to serving as song leader and lay leader for years at Center.

Not only was she mother to her own children, but she and Roger hosted three exchange students for various periods of time. Hiroshi Oguro of Paraguay continued a close connection to the family. They traveled with B&S Excursions on many bus trips across the country after they retired. They made new friends as they saw the beautiful United States.

Survivors include five of her six children, Pamela (Jack) Burks, Kathy Stolz, Douglas (Jacquie) Bowen, Mark Bowen and Todd Bowen. She was “Grandma Junie” to her six grandchildren — Regina (Ray) Evans, Elizabeth (James Swartout) Stolz, Thomas Bowen, Laura Bowen, Ryley (Loran) Bowen and Jadyn Bowen — and to her three great-grandchildren — Leo Evans, Zachary Evans and Phoebe Bowen.

Her “second family” of Jenny, Casey and Piper Wagner was instrumental in providing her with a better quality of life during the past three years. While other friends and neighbors helped by transporting Luetta to appointments, Jenny was especially important in allowing her to live independently on the farm while enhancing her social life at the same time.

She was predeceased by her husband Roger Bowen, who died in 2020 after 70 years of marriage; her son Jeffrey, who died in 2022; her son-in-law Lionel Smith, who died in 2020; and her granddaughter Abigayle Bowen, who died in 1997.

Luetta requested that services be a celebration of a long life well-lived. She herself requested that attendees wear the bright colors that she loved (“nothing drab”), and her children additionally request that everyone wear colorful, crazy socks as Luetta had done in her later years. She also would like everyone to know that she never colored her hair. It was still naturally dark at age 97.

Visitation is set for Friday, Nov. 21, from 2 to 7 p.m. at Williamson-Spencer & Penrod Funeral Home, 208 N. Commerce St., Portland. The funeral service will be Saturday, Nov. 22, at 11 a.m. in the sanctuary of Asbury United Methodist Church, 204 E. Arch St., Portland. A one-hour visitation at the church will precede the funeral. Burial will be in Salamonia Cemetery immediately after the service.

Helping others get a start toward a teaching career was extremely important to her because the scholarship she received in 1946 changed the trajectory of her life. Although Luetta loved flowers, she requested that all memorials go to the Luetta Bowen Scholarship, c/o The Portland Foundation, 107 S. Meridian St., Portland, IN 47371.