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The remains of Grace Evelyn Nowlin, age 94 at the time of her death, will be buried next to her husband of 26 years in the Greenlawn Memorial Park of Groves, Texas.

Evelyn was the daughter of Fielden Jewel Austin and Arminta Helen League Austin, born in Cashion, Oklahoma, September 11, 1900.

She studied at Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway, Arkansas and Northwestern State Teachers College in Alva, Oklahoma before teaching for nine years in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

She moved to Port Arthur, Texas to study business at Port Arthur Business and Radio College before working as an advertising manager for a local publication.

In 1933 she married Bernard C. Nowlin, an electrical engineer at the Gulf refinery, and was blessed with a girl, Jennie Louise, in 1941.

Widowed in 1959 she left her Port Arthur home and Stanley Home Products business to be Dean of Women at Dallas Christian College in Dallas, Texas, where Jennie was a student.

There she was known as Mama Nowlin. She remained in that post until 1963 when she returned to her home in Port Arthur.

After Jennie and her husband, Paul M Platt moved to Grundy, Virginia to minister with the Mountain Mission School, an institution providing a home, school and church to needy children, Mrs. Nowlin sold her Texas property and followed in 1972 taking up residence in an apartment on school property.

She lived independently, enjoying her grandchildren and participating in school and local church activities.

With failing health she spent her final years in Heritage Hall, a nursing facility in Clintwood and Grundy, Virginia.

She joined her Savior October 9, 1994 and was buried in the HIbbitts cemetery in Grundy, Virginia. Grace Evelyn was a faithful member of the First Christian Church in Port Arthur, Texas and later the Lakeview Christian Church.

She also participated in the Eastern Star organization.

Mrs. Nowliln had a brother, Ernest of Oklahoma; a sister, Mae Leach of Port Arthur; and a sister Geraldine Adkins of Oakland, California all of whom are now deceased.

Her only daughter, Jennie Louise, passed in 2018 and is buried in Mountain Valley Memorial Gardens in Big Rock, Virginia.

She is survived by her son-in-law Paul of Grundy, Virginia, two of three grandsons, Jonathan of Spartanburg, South Carolina and Sean of Cuba, Ohio. Her first grandson, Timothy, passed in 2017.

Evelyn also has eight great grandchildren: Maria and Katrina of Kyoto, Japan; Noah and Isaiah  of Plano, Texas; Ethan and Elijah of Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Mason and Levi of Hillsboro, Ohio.

Mrs. Nowlin’s remains are now being reunited with her husband’s at Greenlawn Memorial Park, 3900 Twin City Highway, Groves, Texas on July 20, 2021 at 10:00 am.

Interested parties are invited to share memories with her son-in-law at that time and place.