Winfield (Windy) Scott Cowles was born April 19, 1930 in Saginaw, Michigan and died on October 9, 2018 with his loving family by his side. His first home was in Genesee Gardens sub and the family lived with Great Uncle Hector Diffel. The family moved to Roscommon in the summer of 1935 or 1936 and in the late 1930s the family settled in a rural residence in Eaton Rapids.
They had horses, cows, pigs, rabbits, banne hens and chickens and beagle hunting dogs. Winfield joined the 4H Club… Read More » and enjoyed showing gardening and animals in the Eaton County Fair. He also loved riding his bike.
As a youth Winfield worked on a “truck farm”, as it was called back then. Winfield attended country schools including the Bradford Wilson/Cockroft schools (which have been torn down and the land reverted back to the owners) and then King Street High School for his senior school years. The Eaton Rapids bus system started during World War II.
Winfield attended the Charlesworth Methodist Church and as an adult attended the First Baptist Church in Eaton Rapids, South Baptist Church in Lansing and the Griffith Methodist Church in Eaton Rapids. After graduating from High School in 1949, he was drafted in the Army in January 1950 and attended boot camp at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Camp Breckenridge for Cook School. At Fort Meade, MD, he was a cook for inductions and was released September 1951, three months early due to surplus manpower in Korea.
He began work at Oldsmobile and joined Union Local 652 in October 1951 and moved out of the family home to downtown Eaton Rapids, to the Hovis home. He met Lois Solomon there in the fall of 1953, and they married May 30, 1954. The couple had two daughters, Cheri Lu and Sue Ann.
He retired 12/31/1979. Winfield enjoyed learning and playing the dobro in the late 1970s and early 1980s and joined square dancing with wife Lois. He also had a tractor and bicycle service, and loved working out in his garage fixing up machinery.
He loved attending auctions, bluegrass festivals and with his wife taught Sunday School lessons. Winfield and wife Lois also travelled many places, including their favorite trip to the Grand Canyon with their daughters and their husbands. The last year and a half of his life he lived at Brookdale in Ann Arbor near his daughter.
He enjoyed playing (and winning! ) at BINGO, playing dominoes with his wife and family, and joining in all of the fun activities like going to the Yankee Air Museum or lunch bunch. He was loved by all of the residents and staff and he will be dearly missed by all.
He was preceded in death by his father Winfield Jabez, his mother Sarah Ada (Diffel), and brother Albert. He is survived by his loving wife Lois (Solomon) Cowles; sister Dorothy (Cowles) Crall; his daughters Cheri (Roger) Harding, Sue (Ray) Kelch; grandchildren Lindsay (Jess) Harding, Hilary (Ruben) Montano; great grandchildren Jacoby Harding and Ruben Montano Junior; along with numerous nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, October 15, 2018 at Griffith United Methodist Church in Eaton Rapids.
Family will receive friends for visitation on Sunday from 2-4 p.m. at the church. To share memories and condolences please visit www.
If you found any mistakes, or you would like to add/remove to this obituary, please contact us by email: info@obituary.memorial. We never ask money for this.
