Malcolm "Lou" Bowen

Malcolm "Lou" Bowen, 93, of Flat Rock, IL, passed away on July 19, 2026, at Arbor Rose of Robinson, IL. She was born on March 18, 1933, in Seminole, OK, the daughter of William Burr Pinkstaff and Willie Viola (Johnson) Pinkstaff. Oklahoma was behind her by the time she was three, when the family moved to this part of Illinois. She married Bob Bowen on October 24, 1953, and followed him to California while he was stationed there with the Navy.

When his time in the service was finished, they came home for good, and Lou went to work as a telephone operator. It was work she kept for twenty-five years, retiring from GTE, and when that chapter closed, she and Bob started another one on the road. They wintered in Texas every year and traveled all over North America, sometimes camping with their children, and sometimes it was just the two of them on his motorcycle. Beech Bend, KY, was a recurring summer trip when the kids were growing up. The rest of the country came later. They loved Las Vegas. They saw the Rockies. They made it to nearly every state, including Alaska and Hawaii. They had motorcycle friends who traveled with them, and that group rode as far as the Grand Canyon.

But however far they went, Lou was always coming back to the same place. Her country home was where she wanted to be. She did the yardwork, fished the pond, hunted mushrooms in the spring, and rode her moped around when she felt like it. But she was just as content to sit in the glider under the pine trees and wait for the deer to come through, and something usually did. Lou loved animals enough that a few of them stopped being wildlife altogether, as two or three raccoons came around often enough that she took them in as pets!

She fed people, too. Her kitchen stayed busy with persimmon cookies, pies, and cherry delight made from hand-picked cherries from the tree in her yard. Though most of her cooking was for home, plenty of her culinary creations went out the door with her. Her green bean casserole and brownies were what people expected from her at the Flat Rock First Missionary Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday school as well. She also served her community as an election judge for Honey Creek Township for several years.

What she gave her community, she gave her family twice over. Christmas brought out the best of it, with white elephant exchanges and bingo year after year. But she did not need a holiday to get a game going. The basketball and softball she played at Robinson High School came back out in the yard with her grandchildren, as did badminton, and in the winter, the grandkids all loved sledding with their Mawmaw. Even when she wasn't playing a game, she was listening to one, with the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio nearly every night.

She was a private person, but she could be funny in a way that caught people off guard. For example, if she didn't approve of an outfit, she was known to say something like, "Are you going to wear that? It looks like you're going mushroom hunting!" She was frugal enough to rescue a zucchini cake out of a sink full of dishwater and put it back in the pan, on the grounds that nobody would know. Given all that, what she asked for makes sense. She asked that no one cry at her funeral. She wanted laughing and talking and celebrating, because she is in heaven.

She is survived by her son & daughter-in-law, Bruce & Pam Bowen (Robinson, IL); by her daughter & son-in-law, Shelly & P.K. Frederick (Flat Rock, IL); by three grandchildren, Abraham & wife Milly Frederick (Ankeny, IA), Courtney Bowen (Terre Haute, IN), and Jordan & wife Kelsa Bowen (Robinson, IL); by three great-grandchildren, Wally Frederick, Amelia Frederick, and Elias Frederick; by her niece, Ann & husband Tim Wade (Robinson, IL); and by her nephew, DeWayne & wife Gayle Pinkstaff (Scottsdale, AZ).

In addition to her parents and her husband of nearly 66 years, Lou was preceded in death by a stillborn son and by her brothers & sisters-in-law, Jimmy & Patty Pinkstaff and Charles & Reba Pinkstaff.

A time of visitation will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22nd, at the Flat Rock First Missionary Baptist Church. Funeral services will immediately follow and be held at 1:00 p.m., with Pastor JD Branson officiating. Burial will be in the Jones Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to "Arbor Rose of Robinson," with memorial envelopes available at the church. The Goodwine Funeral Home in Flat Rock is assisting the family at this time.