Jane Gray "Bunny" Sowell

View Funeral WebcastMiss Jane Gray "Bunny" Sowell, 68, funeral director, embalmer, co-owner and Corporate Secretary of Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home, died Monday, October 5, 2015 at Maury Regional Medical Center. Funeral services will be conducted Friday at 11:00 A.M. at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Rev. Tommy Vann and Judge Bobby Sands officiating. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Thursday after 4:00 P.M. at the funeral home. The family suggests memorials to Rose Hill Cemetery, P. O. Box 1015, Columbia, TN 38402. Condolences may be extended online at www.oakesandnichols.com. Bunny was born May 24, 1947 at King's Daughters Hospital in Columbia, the first child of Dorothy Gray Sowell and the late Frank Freeman Sowell, and lived in the family residence on West Seventh Street for over fifty years. Her interest in funeral service began at an early age and has continued to the present as a member of the firm of Oakes & Nichols Inc. She attended McDowell Elementary School and Whitthorne Junior High School prior to graduating from Columbia Central High School in 1965. Immediately following graduation, she attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, later transferring to Gupton College in Nashville where she graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Mortuary Science in 1967. During the interim she took courses at Columbia State Community College, Aquinas College and Vanderbilt University. Upon earning her degree she sat for the National Funeral Service Examining Board and the Tennessee Funeral Service Examining Board, earning certification and licensing as a funeral director and embalmer in 1968. Sponsored by the Columbia Lions Club, she attended the University of Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville where she studied corneal enucleation (removal of corneal tissue for transplant purposes). In 1974, she became the first woman and only Tennessean to be certified in this capacity. In the years since certification, she has attended courses for continuing education in this field as well as Disaster Preparedness Training and other funeral service related fields. She was licensed by the State of Tennessee as an Insurance Agent in 1991. She is a member of the National Funeral Directors Association, Tennessee Funeral Directors Association and the Georgia Academy of Graduate Embalmers. While a member of the Board of Directors of the state association, she was one of four members selected to travel the state conducting seminars for funeral directors and embalmers on compliance with the policies and regulations of the Federal Trade Commission. After serving her first appointment of a two-year term to the Tennessee State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers in the late 1980's, she was later elected to the National Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards. Her latest appointment to the Tennessee State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers began on January 1, 2012, and she was serving as the Board's Continuing Education Liaison at the time of her death. Her community and civic activities include membership in Maury Alliance, serving as a committee member of its fore-runner, the Maury County Chamber of Commerce; member and former President of the Maury County Historical Society; member and former President of the Maury County Chapter, APTA; James K. Polk Memorial Association; member of the Rose Hill Endowment Association for over twenty years and Maury Regional Medical Center Auxiliary for several years. She grew up a member of First United Methodist Church, later transferring membership to Zion Presbyterian Church where she has been a member for forty years, taught Adult Sunday School for several years, served on the Pulpit Committee, and was active in the Women of the Church. She was a former Chapter Regent of the Jane Knox Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. She also served as State Chair of the Junior Membership Committee, DAR School Committee and the Resolutions Committee. During this time she was a member of the Board of Trustees at Tamassee DAR School, Tamassee, South Carolina. In 1981, she was named National Outstanding Junior member of the DAR. She also served as Senior State President of the Children of the American Revolution. In addition to her mother, she is survived by sisters, Beth (Harvey) Fischer and Sammye A. Sowell, both of Columbia; brother, Tony (Susie) Sowell of Santa Fe; niece, Meribeth Gray Sowell of Columbia; nephews, Matthew Freeman (Laura) Sowell of Columbia; Andrew Delk (Shellie) Sowell of Spring Hill; William Chaffin (Christine) Fischer of Washington, D.C.; John Louis (Alison) Fischer of Nashville; Samuel Alexander Sowell of Columbia; and several great nieces and great nephews. Pallbearers will be her nephews and her Oakes & Nichols Family.