The GOWDY Family
in Mississippi
Obituaries from Blue Mountain Newspapers
ARCH. E. GOWDY - January 31, 1952,
Southern Sentinel, Ripley, MS
Blue Mountain, Miss., Jan 30, - Services for Arch E. Gowdy of Blue Mountain were
held Wednesday afternoon from the Lowrey Memorial Baptist Church. Rev. Robert Woody, the
pastor, conducted the funeral. Burial was in Blue Mountain cemetery with R. L. Nance
Funeral Home of Ripey in charge. Mr. Gowdy had been confined to his home for about a
year, suffering from heart complications. He seemed as well as usual Tuesday afternoon and
was chatting and joking with some of his neighbors when he laughed at some remark he had
just made and fell back into his chair, dying instantly, a thing he had hoped to do.
Arch E. Gowdy, who lived here for the whole of his nearly seventy-eight years, was born near Blue Mountain, April 19th, 1874. His parents were James K. and Rachel Jernigan Gowdy, both members of pioneer North Mississippi families. He attended the public schools of this vicinity. He was a carpenter by trade, following his trade for more than fifty years. He has been a member of the Baptist church since the age of nineteen and he was active in church and Sunday School all his life. He was twice married, first to Miss Sallie Godwin of Blue Mountain and after her death to Mrs. E. E. Hagy who survives him. They were married thirty-two years ago.
Besides his wife, Mr. Gowdy leaves four sons, Herbert Gowdy and Bill Gowdy, both of Memphis, Sam Godwin Gowdy of Denver, Colo., and James Gowdy of Camden, Ark., and three sisters, Mrs. William D. Floyd of Colton, Califif.; Mrs. Sam Howell of Comanche, Texas and Mrs. R. P. Jones of Memphis. He has seven grandchildren.
The sudden death of Arch Gowdy removed from this neighborhood one of its landmarks. A member of a large family of brother and sisters, Arch outlived all of his brothers while his three living sisters have all been out of Blue Mountain for most of their lives. All of his sons, too, live elsewhere and not one of his grandchildren lives here.
Arch was a good carpenter, a good neighbor, a good man. I have known him intimately all my life, went to public school with him when we were both boys and had him as a member of my Men's Bible Class down at the local railway station, and like many others in this neighborhood, I lament the loss of a longtime faithful friend. - By David E. Guyton.