Carles Ray Sowers March 23, 1929 – February 19, 2019 Share this obituary Sign Guestbook| View Guest Book Entries| Send Sympathy Card Funeral service for Carles Ray Sowers will be 9:30 a.m. Monday, February 25, 2019 in Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with Reinherd Heinz officiating. Burial with full military honors will follow in Fort Sill National Cemetery, Elgin. The Family will greet friends from 3-5 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.
Carles Ray Sowers, age 89, Lawton, died Tuesday, February 19, 2019 in Lawton. He was born from humble beginnings; he remained humble his entire life. He was born March 23, 1929 at home, an old converted stable, to James Ira and Lunar Moffett Sowers.
Shortly after his birth his father became a sharecropper and they almost starved to death. The family moved after that to 80 acres and established themselves closer to Lunar‘s family. When his half-brother, Harvey Sowers, died in 1934 from a ruptured appendix, Carles was hospitalized by the attending country doctor for malnutrition.
His father was seriously injured when he was 15. His mother borrowed enough money to buy him a one-way train ticket to Sunnyside, Washington. He lived with his brothers’ and sisters’ families while working the orchards and obtaining whatever work he could get.
He picked apples, cherries, dug and sacked potatoes, worked the hops field and on a dairy. The only time he was ever fired was while working on the dairy. He was told that the farmer’s daughters didn’t have any sense ever since he had been working there.
They would fight over who was going to bring him water. He said all he knew was he always had plenty of cold water! With the money he earned he bought his first jacket, an $11 leather jacket, two pair of pants, a pair of shoes and two shirts.
He came home on the train and handed his mother $350. When he came home he tried multiple times to get hired at the local paper company but was not successful. He stopped at the recruiting office and they had openings with the engineers and the infantry.
He chose engineers figuring he already knew how to shoot and maybe he could learn something in the engineers. At nine his father gave him ammo and a gun; he would spend all day out looking for food. He shared this rifle with his brothers.
His uncle Atley taught him how to drive on a model-T pickup. He was around 12 at the time. Carles met his future wife at Jonesboro Hodge High School.
He would take flowers picked from his mother’s flower garden to her. Their romance would blossom from there. He got his mother’s signature and joined the army at age 17 in 1947.
He did basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. From there he went to Korea, and while there he volunteered to relieve the 11th airborne in Japan. When in Sendai, Japan he helped establish and run a fire department and received a special promotion to E-6 as a result.
He received a letter from the Sendai Prefecture thanking him for working with the Japanese. In 1951 he returned to work as a Fire Chief at White Sands proving grounds. His high school sweetheart married him on July 10, 1952.
From then on they traveled across the US and Europe. White Sands, France, Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, Fort Sill, Armstedt, Germany and back to Fort Sill. After 22 1/2 years in the military he retired on August 31, 1969 and went to work for the US Postal Service the following week.
He worked 21+ years with the US Postal Service. One thing he looked forward to when retiring from the military was getting a hunting dog. He loved bluetick‘s, black-n-tans and Louisiana cur dogs.
He would work all day and hunt all night – the Sportsman Center would call him sometimes with people who would want to go out hunting with him. He was an avid gardener as well as a hunter, easily raised enough food to feed five families. He volunteered on the Parks and Recreation committee and did programs for the schools.
He wrote short articles for the local newspaper encouraging tree planting, gardening and ecological conservation. Bottom line, he lived his life well and to the fullest. He loved his family, friends, neighbors and people in general.
He never met a stranger and could talk the ears off a Billygoat. He constantly gave up himself and will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife, Bobbie Rhea Sowers; two children, Carola Whicker and Rex L. Sowers; daughter-in-law, Patsy Glover Sowers; granddaughter, Crystal Sowers; great granddaughter, Carrie DeMarrias; two brothers, Dale and Loyd Sowers; two sisters, Lorene Maxwell and Nellie Wilks; and numerous nieces and nephews.
His parents, a son, Carles R. Sowers, Jr., brothers, Harvey, George James and Cecil, and sisters, Mary Frances and Myrtleine, preceded him in death.
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