- Date Of Birth: June 6, 1920
- Date Of Death: April 12, 2015
- State: Arizona
Estela Lowrey, a Scottsdale resident since 1973, passed away at the age of 94 on Sunday, April 12, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Born Maria Estela Pruneda on June 6, 1920 in Puebla, Mexico to Francisco Pruneda and Flora Sanchez, she attended secretarial school and was so employed when she became a pen pal with Eugene Lowrey, a teacher who was studying Spanish in Hammond, Indiana. He made three trips to Puebla before they were married there on September 17, 1944.
The couple then moved to Midland, Michigan, where Eugene had been hired to work at the Dow Chemical Company’s aniline plant. Estela gave birth to her first son, Richard, in 1945, and Eugene was hired by Midland Public Schools, teaching instrumental music and Spanish.
Estela worked at Dow Corning as a legal secretary from 1965 until 1973, when she and Eugene moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. She worked for the City of Scottsdale for several years. For most of her life, she used her strong Spanish and English skills as a translator, mainly for Dow International, Dow Corning, and the City of Scottsdale. She and Eugene were both longtime volunteers at Recording for the Blind.
