Nettie Gowens

Nettie Mae Pearl Smith Gowens, a sweet and kind friend to everyone who knew her, passed from this earthly life to eternity and into the arms of her Savior Jesus Christ on October 10, 2010 at the Houston Hospice Inpatient facility on Holcomb Blvd, Houston, Texas.
Nettie Mae was born in Huffman, TX the daughter of Adam Pinckney Smith and Maynette Maynettie or Nettie Hannah Kessler Smith on August 8, 1915. She was a twin and the two were the youngest of seven children. Both the Smiths and the Kesslers were early Houston area pioneers.
At the age of three, Nettie Mae moved with her family to Knippa, TX, a town founded by her maternal grandfather Albert James Kessler and her maternal great grandfather George Knippa. Nettie Mae had many similar aged cousins in Knippa and they all grew up like one large family. She was educated in the Knippa School and graduated about 1935. After graduation Nettie Mae attended SW Texas State Teachers College now Texas State University at San Marcos. While attending college she performed synchronized swimming at Aquarena Springs.
After college she taught school. Nettie Mae met her husband, John Witherspoon Gowens Sr., a Del Rio native, while teaching school at Cline. They were married November 12, 1938 in the home of Edmund A Osborne, the 1st Christian Church preacher in Uvalde. At the time, John was a University of Texas trained civil engineer working for the Texas Highway Department on a crew surveying US Hwy 90 toward Beaumont. While living in Houston in 1939, John actually surveyed the rightofway through Houston that is now Interstate 10.
By 1940 John and Nettie Mae were living with Johns mother in Del Rio. John II was born in Del Rio that year. While John was in the Navy during World War II, Nettie Mae moved back to Knippa and lived with her mother. After the war John and Nettie Mae had a surprise second son, Bobby, on their eighth wedding anniversary. John and Nettie Mae were on another highway department assignment in Lampasas when Bobby was born.
The Texas Highway Department transferred John to Amarillo in 1948, where he completed his career as a highway design engineer. While living in Amarillo, Nettie Mae worked a total of eighteen years as a school secretary at the Wilson Elementary School and at Forrest Hill Elementary School. John II and Bobby attended Wilson Elementary school during the period she worked there.
John retired from the highway department in 1977and they moved to Knippa where they built a home on the SW corner of Houston Street and Avenue G. Nettie Mae was left a widow in 1980 when John died of cancer after a short illness. After Johns death Nettie Mae was a substitute teacher in the Knippa schools from time to time. She was also an active member of the retired teachers association in Uvalde.
A few years after Johns death Nettie Mae sold her home in Knippa and moved to Uvalde. In 2000, she moved to Sugar Land to be closer to immediate family. Since that time she has lived in an independent living apartment at the Terrace First Colony in Sugar Land until a heart attack two days after her 95th birthday.
Nettie Mae was a lifelong member of the Churches of Christ. Her father, Adam Smith, founded the Knippa Church of Christ in the family home. Nettie Mae was baptized in the Sabinal River in 1927 and she received her last communion on Sunday, August 22, 2010. In Sugar Land, Nettie Mae was a member of the First Colony Church of Christ where son Bobby has served as an elder for twentythree years.
Nettie Mae was the last surviving member of the family of Adam d.1935 and Maynette Kessler d.1962 Smith. In birth order her siblings are: Anne Melissa d.1980, Emma Hannah d.2002, Martha Elvira d.1985, Alvin James d.1983, Ollie Myrtle Polly d.2002 and Lottie Lillian her fraternal twin d.1937. Nettie Mae was the second twin born.
Nettie Mae is survived by son John Witherspoon Gowens II and his wife Mary Ann of Ellicott City, MD son Bobby Louis Gowens and his wife Cheryl Anne of Missouri City, TX five grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. Further, she is survived by many nieces and nephews, as well as, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Nettie Mae was interred on October 14, beside her husband John in the Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery, Uvalde, TX. Her nephew Lawrence Ray Smith conducted the graveside funeral service.

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