Gene Joe Bowen

Gene Joe Bowen, 87, Nevada, passed away Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. He was born May 17, 1924, in Vernon County, Mo., to James D. Bowen and Velie Vina Strain Bowen.

Gene was raised in Nevada and entered in the U.S. Army at a young age. He worked for Kansas City Power and Light Company in Kansas City, Mo., for a number of years. In the early 1950s, he moved to California and worked in highway construction until his retirement in 1979, when he came back to Nevada. He was a member of the Nevada Eagles Lodge, Aerie No. 3770.

Survivors include one brother, Kenneth "Joe" Bowen, Independence, Mo.; three sisters, Esther Irwin, Hume, Mo., Ellen Yurk, Nevada, and Doris Whalen, Compton Junction, Mo.; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Lucille Johnston; and two brothers, John W. Bowen and Jerome "Buster" Bowen.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 27, at Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada, with the Rev. Thomas and Barbara Minton officiating. Interment will follow, with military honors, at Moore Cemetery in Nevada.

Friends may call now and until the hour of service at Ferry Funeral Home, and the family receives friends at the funeral home Friday, Aug. 26, between 7 and 8 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be made to either the Kansas City Veterans Administration Hospital or to Vernon County Cancer Relief in care Ferry Funeral Home, 301 S. Washington, Nevada.

View obituary and send condolences on line at www.ferryfuneralhome.com.