Elaine Irene Leich Lowe

  

b. October 30, 1924 Buffalo, New York
d. October 2, 2001 Duarte, California

 Born in Buffalo, New York on October 30, 1924, to Oscar and Elinor (Walter) Leich, Elaine was the middle of three children in her family. She had an older brother Glenn and a younger sister, Carol. She was raised in the small hamlet of Bowmansville, a suburb of Buffalo and Lancaster, east of Lake Erie.

 As a child she was a member of the local newspaper's "Jolly Junior Sunshine Club" which boasted almost 200,000 young members. She attended Lancaster High School and graduated in 1941. She was involved in Girl Scouts, the Epworth League (a youth program in the Methodist Church), the high school Glee Club and also the Sub-Deb Club (from sub-debutante). She also served at the National Youth Administration, an agency designed to address the high unemployment in youth during the Great Depression, the era in which she spent most of her childhood. At her high school's commencement ceremony (and only a few months before the start of World War II) she gave a speech titled "Hitler's Deadly Weapon-Propaganda".

 As the war continued the nation created a program to address the critical nursing shortage. The U.S. Cadet Nursing Corps was established in 1943, and Elaine joined the program of 180,000 nurses by attending the John Hopkins University Nursing School. This is where she met her husband to be, Harry Lowe, who was there studying for his medical degree. They were married in 1947 and raised a family of five children. Elaine stayed home raising the children, and they lived in several cities throughout the country as Harry grew in his career as an anesthesiologist.

 Elaine loved traveling to see family and friends, she played the piano quite well and loved Yahtzee and all kinds of card games with her kids and grandkids. Her health declined late in her days (Addison's disease) yet she was always cheerful and happy when surrounded by family.

Written by her son, David Wren Lowe.

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