Fri Mar 12 2010
Stow -- The grand marshal for Stow's Fourth of July parade is 95-year-old Elizabeth Stow Green "Lib" Cowles -- the last of the Stow family descendants.
She said her philosophy of life revolves around love.
"Love everybody," she said. "It makes things easier. It makes it possible to move along.
"I have no regrets," she said. "My life has been very happy. I've been surrounded by love."
The 51st Stow Fourth of July parade will step off at 10 a.m. from Stow-Kent Shopping Center, travel down Kent Road past Holy Family Church and end at Park Drive.
"We thank this wonderful lady for all she brought to Stow -- the Stow name she was given as our final Stow descendant, and the devotion she has shown to the city and its people in so many ways," said Tom Stephan, parade master of ceremonies and a Stow-Munroe Falls Chamber of Commerce director.
"We want to recognize her for a life well-lived," he added.
Her paternal grandmother was Ellen Elizabeth Stow, prior to her marriage to the Rev. Francis Marion Green, Lib's grandfather.
Lib's father was Frank Albert Green, who was the sexton of Stow Cemetery who researched and wrote extensively about Stow's history. He lived to be 100 and founded the Stow Historical Society on Nov. 15, 1949.
Lib served as the first president of the historical society but quickly added, "It only meant that Dad was deaf and couldn't conduct a meeting."
Born on Oct. 8, 1913, in a house on Yukon Road, her family moved when she was 6 months old to a house at 3918 Darrow Road, where she lived for more than 90 years.
(The city of Stow purchased the house in the early 2000s for the City Center expansion. It is where the city service building is located.)
Lib attended school at the old Central School, which eventually became the Stow City Hall, until seventh grade when she moved to the "new" school across the street, which eventually became known as the Workman Building and now is Marc's Plaza.
She was interested in "having fun" as a teenager and was one of the first girls to participate in the inter-scholastic girls' basketball program, traveling all over Summit County for games.
As a teenager she also worked as a waitress -- filling water glasses -- at the Motor Inn on Darrow Road. It eventually became the Stow Smorgasbord and is now Parasson's Italian Restaurant. She graduated from Stow High School in 1931.
Lib was one of the few females to attend college during the Depression and went to Kent State Normal College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in French and literature in June of 1935.
She married Austin Hughes Cowles, a distant relative of Howard Hughes, on Aug. 10, 1936. They were married for 58 years and had three children -- one girl and two boys.
Throughout her adult life, her focus was on her family, her church and her community. She started out as a housewife, but eventually opened one of the first local kindergartens in her home, before moving it to First Christian Church.
She started the first Girl Scout troop in Stow in 1938. Through Girl Scouts she made many friends, both the young Scouts and their parents. Several trips to Europe came about through Scout contacts. She also organized the first local Girl Scout day camp at Adell Durbin Park.
As a charter member of Stow Players in 1953, she acted in many productions well into the 1960s. She followed a family tradition with a keen interest in tracing local history, especially in how Stow (and area) roads originated.
Besides being the first president of the Stow Historical Society, she was a member and officer (president in 1972) of the Stow Woman's Club for many years.
She has been a member of First Christian Church in Stow her entire life. At the age of 16 she became the youngest person asked to teach a Sunday School class. She was the first woman to become an Elder in her church, and is now recognized as "Elder Emeritus."
She also planned many church dinners, a talent she believes came from those years as a waitress, learning how to do things "the right way."
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