Nora Clemens Bowie

View Funeral Webcast Nora Esther Clemens Bowie, 96, Columbia businesswoman and long-time resident of West Seventh Street, died Saturday, September 12, 2009 at Maury Regional Medical Center. Mrs. Bowie also had maintained a residence in the Florida Keys for a number of years. Funeral services will be conducted Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church with The Reverend Richard Zalesak officiating. Burial will follow in St. John's Churchyard at Ashwood. The family will visit with friends Tuesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Oakes & Nichols and from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Wednesday in St. Peter's Parish Hall. Memorials may be made to St. John's Episcopal Church, 1116 West Seventh Street, PMB 75, Columbia 38401. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. Born and reared on a farm in Jackson County, Alabama, she was the daughter of the late Thomas Samuel Clemens and Nancy Ellen Black Clemens. She attended Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans, Louisiana and did additional work at Florence State Teachers' College in Florence, Alabama. On May 2, 1935, she married Wade Hampton Bowie. Their marriage spanned 60 years until his death January 18, 1996. A wonderful wife and mother, Mrs. Bowie was also a remarkable businesswoman. She managed the family-owned Columbia Hardware Company from the mid-1950s until it was sold in the early 1960s. Subsequently, she owned and operated several Merle Norman Cosmetic Studios in Southern Kentucky from the late 1970s and continued to be a silent partner in existing studios at the time of her death. She was a member of the American Business Women's Association (ABWA) and, at one time, was president and 1980 Associate of the Year of the local organization in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She was also a Kentucky Colonel and Businesswoman of the Year in 1982. Survivors include her children, Barbara B. Hopkins of Birmingham, Alabama, Vivian A.(Tom) Pilant of Columbia, South Carolina; Wade Hampton Bowie, Jr. of Topeka, Kansas, and Thomas Clemens (Jan) Bowie of Carefree, Arizona; eleven grandchildren; and ten great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a sister, Ira Cotton and three brothers, James Clemens, Guy Clemens, and Aubrey Clemens. Active pallbearers are Noel Hopkins, Wade H. Bowie, II, James C. Bowie, Wade Hopkins, Mark Craft, William Hansard, and Patrick Harlan. Honorary pallbearers include Robert L. Wall, David H. Bowie, and LT (jg) Christopher T. Bowie.