Charles "Jake" Owens
August 18, 1918 — April 18, 2008
Charles “Jake” Owens, 89, of Center Point, died Friday morning, April 18, 2008, surrounded by his family at Hiawatha Care Center, Hiawatha. Services: 10:00 a.m. Monday, April 21, 2008 at Murdoch Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Center Point, Iowa, by the Rev. John Caughron and the Rev. Sam Dronebarger. Burial Center Point Cemetery with military honors. Friends may call from 3-7 p.m. on Sunday at the funeral home.
Survivors include his children, Donald Williams and wife Ramona of Marion, Linda Bailey and husband Gary of St. Charles, Minnesota, David Williams and wife Sharron of Hackensack, Minnesota, Becky Fuelling and husband John of Monona, Iowa, and Rhonda Wilhelmi and husband David of Center Point; twenty-six grandchildren; and forty-one great-grandchildren and two on the way.
He was preceded in death by his wife Helen in 2000; an infant daughter, Barbara Jo Owens; a son, Bill Williams; his parents; and siblings, Ralph Owens, Robert Owens, Alma Floyd, Gladys Ferguson, and Betty Raue.
Jake was born August 18, 1918 to Charlie and Sadie Woodruff Owens in Urbana, Iowa. He married Helen Wickham Williams on January 6, 1950 in Center Point, Iowa and farmed there for twenty-four years. They retired in 1974 from the farm and moved into town. Jake was a World War II Purple Heart veteran where he entered France on Omaha Beach Head at Normandy. He was a member of Center Point American Legion for over 60 years.
Jake loved hunting, fishing, staying at the cabin, being with family and telling stories. He remembers the first time he ever saw a whitetail deer in Benton County. He went fishing in just about every body of water in and around Linn and Benton County. We all know the story of when he killed a wolf near Big Timber in his youth and how they hung the wolf outside the grocery store in Center Point (what is now Craig’s Appliance) and they finally took it down when customers complained of the smell. He would always laugh when he would tell stories of his favorite uncles, Frank and Howard Woodruff, and the times he spent with them at their cabin on Woodruff’s island. He loved to tease and pull practical jokes and half the time you weren’t sure if he was telling you the truth or pulling your leg. After he retired from farming he got to do as much hunting and fishing as he wanted and he said once when he was 75 years old “I wish I could do these last 20 years all over again.” He got to enjoy several years of hunting and fishing with the grandchildren and teaching them what he had learned about wildlife.
Jake was one of a kind and there will never be another one like him. He was loved and will be missed dearly by those of us who loved him. His family has lost their greatest source of history of how things were and what the Cedar River used to look like, and the best example of a “hard work ethic” there could ever be.
Memorials may be made to St. Luke’s Hospice, 1026 A Avenue N.E., Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402.
Survivors include his children, Donald Williams and wife Ramona of Marion, Linda Bailey and husband Gary of St. Charles, Minnesota, David Williams and wife Sharron of Hackensack, Minnesota, Becky Fuelling and husband John of Monona, Iowa, and Rhonda Wilhelmi and husband David of Center Point; twenty-six grandchildren; and forty-one great-grandchildren and two on the way.
He was preceded in death by his wife Helen in 2000; an infant daughter, Barbara Jo Owens; a son, Bill Williams; his parents; and siblings, Ralph Owens, Robert Owens, Alma Floyd, Gladys Ferguson, and Betty Raue.
Jake was born August 18, 1918 to Charlie and Sadie Woodruff Owens in Urbana, Iowa. He married Helen Wickham Williams on January 6, 1950 in Center Point, Iowa and farmed there for twenty-four years. They retired in 1974 from the farm and moved into town. Jake was a World War II Purple Heart veteran where he entered France on Omaha Beach Head at Normandy. He was a member of Center Point American Legion for over 60 years.
Jake loved hunting, fishing, staying at the cabin, being with family and telling stories. He remembers the first time he ever saw a whitetail deer in Benton County. He went fishing in just about every body of water in and around Linn and Benton County. We all know the story of when he killed a wolf near Big Timber in his youth and how they hung the wolf outside the grocery store in Center Point (what is now Craig’s Appliance) and they finally took it down when customers complained of the smell. He would always laugh when he would tell stories of his favorite uncles, Frank and Howard Woodruff, and the times he spent with them at their cabin on Woodruff’s island. He loved to tease and pull practical jokes and half the time you weren’t sure if he was telling you the truth or pulling your leg. After he retired from farming he got to do as much hunting and fishing as he wanted and he said once when he was 75 years old “I wish I could do these last 20 years all over again.” He got to enjoy several years of hunting and fishing with the grandchildren and teaching them what he had learned about wildlife.
Jake was one of a kind and there will never be another one like him. He was loved and will be missed dearly by those of us who loved him. His family has lost their greatest source of history of how things were and what the Cedar River used to look like, and the best example of a “hard work ethic” there could ever be.
Memorials may be made to St. Luke’s Hospice, 1026 A Avenue N.E., Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402.
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