Cowden, Clara Holmes 1932-1953

COWDEN, HOLMES, JARRELL, RUCKMAN, BUCKINGHAM, DEMOSS

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 11/7/2008 at 09:50:58

Newton Daily News

WOMAN, 21, SUFFOCATES AT MONROE

Clara Cowden Dies When Fire Consumes Oxygen Inside Room

MONROE (Special) -- Clara Holmes Cowden, 21, died here of suffocation Tuesday when a stove fire consumed all of the oxygen in a one room house in which she was living.

Dr. L.D. Norris, county coroner, said Mrs. Cowden was heating water for washing and apparently lay down to rest and went to sleep. The doors and windows in the house were all closed, and the fire used up all of the oxygen in the place.

Mrs. Cowden's body was discovered by a sister, Mrs. Iona Ruckman, about 6:15 p.m. The fire had gone out from lack of oxygen, and Dr. Norris said Mrs. Cowden died several hours before she was found.

Separated from her husband, Dolan Cowden, she lived with a daughter, Judy Ann, 2. The little girl was with relatives at the time.

The deceased was employed at Maytag Plant 2 in the enamel department, and got off work at midnight. Employed at the plant nearly a year, she previously worked at the Automatic Washer Co.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Monroe Baptist church with burial here. Officiating will be the Rev. James Sloan of the Methodist church, of which she was a member. The body was taken to a Knoxville funeral home.

Mrs. Cowden was born Clara Romaine Holmes near Reasnor on April 3, 1932, but lived in Monroe most of her life graduating from Monroe high school in 1950.

Survivors include her daughter; her mother, Mrs. Joe Jarrel of Knoxville; her father, Floyd Holmes of Reasnor; three sisters, Mrs. Ruckman of Monroe, Mrs. William (Kathryn) Buckingham of Prairie City, and Mrs. Marvin (Doris) DeMoss of Knoxville, and a brother, Wendell Holmes of Monroe.