Clara Dell Estep Bowlin

Clara Dell Estep Bowlin, 80, 704 Kendrick Creek Road, Kingsport, died Friday Oct. 10, 2008 at Holston Manor Nursing Home, after a long and courageous battle with brain cancer.
Mrs. Bowlin was a lifelong resident of Kingsport, growing up in the West View Community, and having resided in Colonial Heights for the past 41 years. She was of the Baptist faith, and had many cherished friends in her Sunday school class at Higher Ground Baptist Church. She was valedictorian of her 8th grade class, and attended Whitney Business College, receiving her certificate in Secretarial Studies in 1960, and being voted "Most Likely To Succeed". She worked from her teenage years until she retired in 1990 from Collections, Inc, having worked more than 28 years as a Collections and Credit Agent. Mrs. Bowlin dedicated her work, energy, and love to raising her children and enjoying her grandchildren, and supporting her husband, Edgar Bowlin's, career as a nationally renowned artist and sculptor, of whom she was very proud, and whom she loved and cared for all the days of their 56 years of marriage.
Mrs. Bowlin was preceded in death by her husband Edgar W. Bowlin Sr.; her parents, Maude and Earl Benfield; and two sisters, Gladys Carter and Agnes Hale.
Surviving are her two sons, Colonel Ret. Gladwyn Bowlin and wife, Susan Jones Bowlin, Atlanta, GA; her son Edgar Bowlin Jr. and wife, April Nicholson Bowlin, Kingsport; and one daughter, Mrs. Portia Bowlin Seay and husband Jonathan Dwight Seay I, Kingsport; four grandsons, J.D. Seay II, Ben Bowlin, Edgar Bowlin III, and Luke Bowlin; one granddaughter, Heather Seay; three great grandsons and one great granddaughter on the way; one sister, Reva Hutson and husband, Floyd Hutson.
Mrs. Bowlin asked that she be cremated and that her ashes be scattered by her three children over her husband's grave, one warm spring day between her birthday and his, May 12-28. She asked that everyone remember her in life, not in death, and that no memorial service be held.