Verna Jessie Owen, March 31, 1913 — March 03, 2019

Verna’s Obituary Verna Jessie Heath Owen, 105, passed away on Sunday, March 3, 2019 in Universal Health Care in Lillington, NC. Verna was born on March 31, 1913 in Benson, NC. She attended elementary and high school in Benson and Erwin, NC and received her high school diploma from Fayetteville Technical Community College in 1975 at the age of sixty-two.

In 1932, at the age of nineteen, Verna married Army Sgt. Arlis Owen. Together they raised four children in Spring Lake, having lived there for seventy-one years, from 1933 to 2004.

Verna was the dietician and lunchroom manager at Spring Lake Elementary School for nineteen years until she retired in 1962. Verna loved to stay busy. She was active as a Sunday school teacher, choir member, Spring Lake Lioness Club, American Legion Auxillary Unit 230, Americanism Chairman, Girls State Chairman, Poppy Chairman, Recreation Center volunteer, World Book sales person, wrote columns for the Spring Lake News and the Fayetteville Observer.

In 1987 she began participating in the North Carolina Senior Olympics and the National Senior Olympics in Ohio and Texas. She had been a member of both Spring Lake Baptist Church and Spring Lake United Methodist Church. In 2004 Verna moved to Chesapeake, VA to be near her daughter, Arlene Tibbetts.

On her 100th birthday, in 2013, Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey declared “Verna Owen Day”. In 2016 at the age of 103, Verna moved to The Woods at Holly Tree in Wilmington, NC to be closer to her older daughter, Jean, and granddaughter, Lisa. Verna moved to Universal Health Care in Lillington, NC in 2017.

She is preceded in death by her husband, mother, father, siblings, and two daughters, Jean Blankenship and Janice Owen. Verna is survived by her three children, Vonne Purcell and husband, Paul, of Troy, NY; Arlene Tibbetts and husband, George, of Kill Devil Hills; A. D. Owen, Jr. and wife, Ruth, of Spartanburg, SC; thirteen grandchildren; thirty-seven great-grandchildren; forty-five great-great-grandchildren; and one great-great-great-grandchild. A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held Saturday, March 9, 2019, at 2:00 PM in the chapel of Adcock Funeral Home in Spring Lake.

Interment will follow in Cumberland Memorial Gardens. A visitation for family and friends will be held from 1:00 to 2:00 PM at the funeral home prior to the service. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Spring Lake American Legion Auxillary or Anderson Creek Lions Club, 60 Rolling Pines Drive, Spring Lake, NC 28390.

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