Marjorie D. (Dubler) Owens

Marjorie Ann (Dubler) Owens, 92, passed away on 5 December 2018 at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown. She was born in Irvona, PA on 3 July 1926 and was the eldest child of Fred A. and Ora (Smeal) Dubler.  She was married to Robert Lee Owens of Houtzdale PA for 64 years.  They had two sons: Dr. D. Alfred (Fred) Owens married to Dr. Judith Mueller, York County PA, and Dr. Robert Owens II married to Vicki Nyul Owens, Newmanstown PA.  She is survived also by first daughter in law, Deborah Harris Owens, Lancaster PA.

Marji is survived also by six loving grandchildren and spouses: Dr. Justin and Valerie Owens, Christiansburg VA; Caitlyn and Elijah McNaughton, Lancaster PA; Abigail and Justin Cooper, Seattle WA; Sarah Owens, Lancaster PA; Colleen Owens, St. Petersburg FL; and Ryan Owens, Athens, PA. In the past few years, her family grew to include four beautiful great grandchildren: Joss and Elena Owens, Christiansburg VA, and Darren and Caden McNaughton, Lancaster PA.

Marji was a peach of a girl(!) actually a tom-boy, renowned for high spirits and unusual courage, enough to dive from a railroad bridge into Clearfield Creek, a stunt her male counterparts were reluctant to match. She met the love of her life, Bob Owens, when he showed up one day selling peaches from a fruit truck.  Her mother bought a bushel, and Marji won Bob’s heart.  Marji graduated from Coalport High School in 1944.  Soon thereafter, she worked as a riveter assembling war planes in Ohio, part of the greatest generation’s defense of the free world, which had already employed Bob as an infantryman in Patton’s 3rdArmy in Europe.  

Marge and Bob married after the War.  He pursued a career in public education and she took up the countless challenges of an attentive and energetic homemaker.  After residing in Elk, Chester, and Erie Counties, they settled in Franklin County, where they raised their boys while Bob served as a high school principal and guidance counselor.  Marji served as Superintendent of the Kindergarten Department at the Quincy EUB Church, the Church Secretary at the Faith United Methodist Church in Waynesboro PA, and Secretary at the Citizen’s Bank.   They spent retirement years at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, where they greatly enjoyed closer proximity to the family along with new friendships and the beautiful environment at the campus.

Services will be held in Sell Chapel at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown on Saturday, 22 December.  Family will receive guests beginning at 10:30 am; the service will be at 11:00. Marji will rest at Bob’s side at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.  Donations of remembrance can be directed to the Masonic Village Hospice services.

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