The Life and Times of a Grandfather

This past weekend, I took a two hour drive to pick my mother up from her sister's house. This sister, my aunt, had in her possession documents from my grandfather's military duty. I have very few memories of this grandfather as there were some relationship issues that kept him and my mother apart and thus us kids didn't really get to know him. It is so sad how Satan can step in and destroy families, but that is another subject for another time. I have a strong interest in family history and why people make the choices that they make and so my current project is to get to know as much about this man as I can. Unfortunately, he died several years ago and so I cannot talk with him in person and so I have to dig through old papers and talk with those who did know him. His name was Everett Bowen and he was born in Audrain County, Missouri in 1911. I know that he graduated from highschool and married my grandmother Zelli Romans Trower in August of 1941. He worked as a sheet metal worker for North American Aviation Company for 6 months in 1942 and served his country in the 3119th Signal Service Battalian of the army between 1943 and 1946, when he was honorably discharged. Soon after he was discharged from the Army, He moved his family to Washington State. The family consisted of my grandfather, grandmother and my mother, who was born in 1943, while he was away during the war. Another daughter came along some time during 1946 and then another daughter in 1948. The family remained in the Seattle area and all three daughters were married in the Seattle area. When I was about 4 or 5, my grandparents divorced and due to the difficulties between my mother and grandfather, we rarely saw him. He retired to the Puyallup area and also died there in 1988. As you can see, all I currently have is a bare skeleton of his life events. I hope to flesh it out in the weeks to come and be able to have a more complete idea of his life and times. I enjoy the pursuit of family history, it is like trying to solve real life mysteries.