Lola Isabelle (McBee) Cowan (1928 - 2001)

Born 11 Nov 1928 in Indianola, Warren County, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Daughter of Harvey Elmer McBee and Anna Virgil (Baysinger) Porosky

Wife of Theodore Elwin Cowan — married 3 Sep 1948 in Seattle, King Co., WA USA

Descendants

Died 19 Feb 2001 at age 72 in Evergreen Hospital, Kirkland, King County, Washington, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Debra Hildebrandt [send private message] and Valorie Zimmerman [send private message]

Lola (McBee) Cowan migrated from Iowa to King, Washington.

Biography

Birth

11 November 1928

Place: Squaw Township, Indianola, Warren, Iowa, USA

Map:

Latitude: N41.361667

Longitude: W93.563056

In a recent blog post at [1], I wrote about my mother Lola McBee Cowan and my mother-in-law Lola Kammer Zimmerman. Here is part of it about my mother.

Lola McBee was born in Indianola, Iowa, the seventh of eleven children. Her father was remodeling their house when she was born, so her first months were spent in a tent! Then he sold their property for $700 and they began a trek up to Alberta, Canada where he believed he would strike it rich. They began by traveling to nearby Des Moines to say goodbye to family there, when illness struck. According to Kathleen, the oldest daughter, several of the children were seriously ill with the measles, then chickenpox. Here we see them in the 1930 US Census, living at 2534 Scott in Des Moines:

Harvey, Anna and their first 7 children, Des Moines 1930

The older children are in school, and that Harvey is driving truck for a coal mining company. Eventually they saved enough money to get back on the road. I've not yet found their crossing document if there is one, but have heard my uncle Ken (Kenneth in that above image) tell the story of a whole parade of vehicles, some of which he drove. My aunt Lea was born on the way to their destination, 27 January 1931 in Cessford, Alberta, Canada. So this was no easy journey in the winter for Anna, although Kathleen seems to have enjoyed it.

My aunt Kathleen ('Katherine' in the above image) wrote about their journey, "August of 1930 we finally got on our way with $300. Shipping most of our machinery and household goods by rail, we traveled by truck and camped out, planning to enter Canada on the Montana border. The trip via Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana proved to be the adventure of our lives... We enjoyed camping out at night and cooking our meals on the camp stove. The smell of sizzling bacon and boiling coffee in the morning got us up without being called. We visited zoos and parks and historical museums on the way, all big adventures to me. Finally we crossed the border into Canada.

"But when we finally arrived at Sunnynook, Alberta, it was heartbreakingly obvious that Dad's dreams were never going to be realized through Mr. Erickson. We all stared at the house he had promised Dad. There were no doors, no windows, no water, no outbuildings of any kind. A forsaken, dilapidated shack fell over itself in the middle of the limitless prairie with high brown grass and weeds enclosing it. As we watched, huge tumbleweeds kept piling up around it blown by a ceaseless, unrelenting wind."^[1]

I mapped possible route from Indianola to Des Moines, through Minnesota, South and North Dakota, Montana and across the border to Cessford and Sunnynook, Alberta, Canada. Google Maps reported that it was approximately 1500 miles.

My aunt finished her account by saying,

"When a horse without a bridle or saddle appeared on the horizon, atop was a grizzled old codger controlling the horse by a rope halter and his knees. He made the horse gallop in to where we all stood and came to a dramatic stop. Before he slid nonchalantly off the horse to the rough grassy ground, we noticed the old man was barefoot.

"Could this be the wealthy Mr. Erickson who exchanged the enticing correspondence with our parents? One impression was confirmed by everything he said. Obviously, the man was crazy. But not as crazy as our parents had been to come at his invitation without checking him out first."^[1]

This was the beginning of my mother's life in Alberta, Canada, where she experienced so much hardship, abuse and poverty, until she made the choice to come back to the United States under the wing of her sister Kathleen, who had made the same choice in 1936. When their youngest brother Sidney died 18 July 1944 in Calgary, Alberta, Kathleen realized at the funeral that she could help her sisters escape the grinding poverty they were experiencing and finish their education in the United States, so she bought Nancy Joanne and my mother bus tickets and brought them to her house in Seattle to help them find a place to live, study and work. Here is her senior picture.

Lola McBee as a Lincoln High School senior, 1947

Their sister Leanell would later come to the US in 1948, joining her sister Nancy Joanne in Long Beach, California where she was living with her husband.

Marriage

Lola McBee marries Ted Cowan September 1948

Collection: King County Marriage Records, 1855-Present

Reference Number: kingcoarchmc150878

Groom's Name: Theodore E Cowan

Bride's Name: Lola Isabelle McBee

Marriage Date: 9-3-1948^[2]

As newlyweds, Mom and Dad lived in a Quonset hut in Seattle, then moved in with Dad's parents south of Issaquah while they built a house on some adjoining property my father owned. During this time, my father's younger brother Donald was drowned at age 13. This tragedy marked my family in ways I'm still realizing.

Right around this time, they moved into the house I grew up in. Was it before or after the 1950 Census? I'll soon be able to find out.

Mom and Dad had two daughters, Valorie and Kimberly. After they grew up and left home, Mom worked in Dad's real estate office for awhile, then became a Teacher's Aide in the Issaquah School District, working with special needs kids. Once she changed positions to become an educational assistant at Echo Glen, the youth prison administered by the Issaquah School District, she really found her metier, loving those kids so damaged by their families and the criminal justice system.

Mom really hated to retire, but was forced to when she could no longer drive. By then she had early-onset Alzheimers, and died when only 72.

Obituary

[McBEE] Lola McBee Cowan, 72, died 19 Feb 2001

Posted on: McBee Obituaries http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/surnames/mcb/McBeeObits/197

Surname: McBee, Cowan, Baysinger, Schell, Zimmerman, Betts, Stapp, Bouck, Flickinger, Glatt, Woods, Collins, Mycoff, deCeault

Born on Armistice Day, Died on President's Day

Lola Isabelle McBee Cowan of Issaquah died February 19, 2001 at the Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington. She was 72.

She was born November 11, 1928, in Indianola, Iowa, seventh of eleven children born to Anna Virgil Baysinger and Harvey Elmer McBee. She grew up in Alberta, Canada, and came back to the US to graduate from Lincoln High School in Seattle, Washington, in 1946. She married Ted Cowan September 3, 1948, and lived with him south of Issaquah since 1949.

Lola retired in 1994 as an Educational Assistant at Echo Glen Juvenile Prison, after having worked for many years alongside her husband Ted at Maple Valley Realty and Village Properties. She began her working career while putting herself through high school, at Van de Kamp's Bakery, and later at the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company. She was a long-time member of the Roadside Chapel. She loved hummingbirds and chickadees, swing music, the family cabin near Mount Rainier, traveling, "her kids" up at Echo Glen, investigating her family history, and enjoyed her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, until she was taken suddenly from us.

Preceding her in death were brothers Sidney, John, Kenneth and Hollis; and sister Marita. She had also mourned the loss of her mother and father, Ted's little brother Donald, and his parents Tom Cowan and Elsie Schell Cowan.

She is survived by her husband Ted; her daughters Valorie Zimmerman of Black Diamond and Kimberly Betts of Salome, Arizona; her sons-in-law Bob and Rick; sisters Kathleen Stapp of Phoenix, Arizona; Betty Bouck of Drayton Valley, Alberta; JoAnne Flickinger of Anacortes; and Leanell Glatt of Spokane; and brother Dennis of Calgary, Alberta; grandchildren Angel Betts and her children Alissa Woods, Christian Collins and Brittney Mycoff; Thomas Zimmerman; Scott Betts and his wife Kayrena; Paul Zimmerman; Sarah Betts; Nichole deCeault and her children Kaylie deCeault and Austin deCeault; Anne Zimmerman; Debra Betts; Guy Andrew Betts; and Emily Betts; along with numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

She will be laid to rest at the Tahoma National Cemetery, 18600 SE 240 St. Friday, February 23, 2001 at 1:45 pm, and a memorial gathering will follow at the Four Corners LDS Church, Maple Valley, 26800 236th Place SE, on Kent-Kangley Road a block off the Maple Valley Highway.^[3], ^[4]

Burial

Lola Cowan gravestone at the National Cemetery

Sources

• Maternal relationship is confirmed by an autosomal GEDmatch comparison between Valorie (Cowan) Zimmerman , GEDmatch kit # SQ780327C1, and Lola (McBee) Cowan, GEDmatch kit # LX517332, her mother (direct ancestor). Predicted relationship from GEDmatch: 1.8, based on sharing 1203.5cM cM across 21 segments using Mom's Lazarus kit.
• Obituary
• 1930 Census: Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, USA
• Digital Archives