- Date Of Birth: September 2, 1932
- Date Of Death: October 14, 2011
- State: Alabama
Jewette (Gamlin) Reynolds Cowan
Decatur, AL
On September 2, 1932, Jewette (Gamlin) Reynolds Cowan was the only child born to George H. Reynolds and Jewette Gamlin Reynolds in Tuskegee, Alabama. “Miss Reynolds” as she was affectionately known, grew up in Tuskegee and graduated in 1950 from Palmer Memorial Institute, an African-American boarding school founded in 1902 in Sedalia, North Carolina.
Ms. Cowan received her Bachelor’s degree in English from Fisk University in 1954. While at Fisk, she sang with the renowned Jubilee Singers, was initiated into the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and was selected as Miss Fisk. Both of her parents graduated from Fisk, where her mother, a member of the class of 1930, was also a Delta and her father, class of 1929, was initiated into the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Ms. Cowan went on to receive a Master’s degree in Library Science from University of Illinois-Champaign in 1956. She began her career at the New York Public Library. She left New York for one year to live with her Aunt Gertrude and Uncle Arrington in London, England, where she traveled throughout Europe.
On November 25, 1961, she married Wallace E. Cowan, of New York City, in a ceremony in Tuskegee. In 1964, Ms. Cowan and her husband moved to Tokyo, Japan following his acceptance of a position as a civil servant in communications with the U.S. government.
The family returned to New York in 1969, where Ms. Cowan spent eight years as a school librarian while her husband pursued a career as a marketing executive with International Business Machines (IBM) in New York City. During this time, Ms. Cowan completed her training in mortuary science.
In the summer of 1977, following the death of her father, Ms.th anniversary.
Following her death on October 14, 2011, at the age of 79, Ms. Cowan leaves to cherish her memory, her loving and devoted son, Christopher and his wife Lynne Dent Cowan and two grandsons Maxwell Reynolds Cowan and Drew Wallace Hunter Cowan (who both referred to her as “Jewels”) all of Washington, D.C., as well as many cousins, other relatives and friends.
