Vyca Cowan

VYCA (McHENRY) COWAN

Vyca Cowan, age 101, died peacefully in her sleep April 2, 2014, at Excel Board and Care in Loma Linda, CA.

Vyca was born on June 5, 1912, on the "Lower Place" near Glendale in Putnam County, Missouri, to George William and Burdell (Martz) McHenry.   The family moved near Mendota and she attended the Carr School.  She  was  the first  one  in  her  family  to  get  to  go  to  high school.   She first went to a Seventh-day Adventist school in Kansas City, then  public high school in Kirksville,  and  ended  up  at  Broadview Academy, near Chicago.

She married Noah M. Cowan on July 30, 1933, in Kirksville.   They bought  a  farm  near Hartford and moved there in the early 1940's.   In 1945 they moved  to  Portland, OR  and  stayed  there until after the war, then moved to Yakima, Washington.   They  moved  back  to  the farm in November of that  year.  In the late 1940's Vyca said to Noah, "Why don't you finish your degree.   We  are  having a shortage of teachers."  Noah replied,  "If anyone in this family is going to be a teacher, it will have to be you, Vyca, because I am dong just what I want to do."   So Vyca started attending college classes in Kirksville.   She  got  her  bachelors degree  and later got a masters.   She  taught at several rural schools in the county and then moved to Kansas City and taught  in the North Kansas  City School District.   After retiring she was able to spend time on her hobby of genealogy.  She  joined the DAR and GAR.   In 1980 she and Noah moved  back  to  Putnam Country where  they built their dream house at Lake Thunderhead.   She  really  enjoyed  working  with  her  fellow  teachers  to  write The History of Rural Schools of Putnam County , published in 1986.    She  loved  to  travel and visited  all 50 states as well  as  six continents.    She  was  a  long  time  member of the Seventh-day Adventist  Church.

Survivors include her daughter, Diana, and husband Jim Brown of Vista, CA,  two sisters-in-law, Mary Gilllum of Kirksville, and Mildred McHenry of Portland, Oregon, and nieces and nephews.   She  was  preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and eight brothers and sisters.

Funeral Services will be held Friday, April 11, at 1:00 PM at the Playle-Jones Family Funeral Home in Unionville, MO.  Visitation will be  Thursday evening from 6 to 8 PM.   In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made Smile Train,  or ADRA,  or the Putnam County Historical Society and left at  Playle-Jones.