Leo Broughton Cowan

Leo Cowan of Tuckasegee died at home on February 15, 2016. He was born February 18, 1920 in the East Fork Community to Royston and Cordelia Hall Cowan whose ancestors came from Burke County in the early 1800s and settled in the Webster area. He was the oldest son in a family of six that included two older sisters, Bennie Settlemyre and Bernice Higdon, and three younger brothers, Lloyd, R.D, and Bryant. Leo attended East Fork's one-room grammar school, Webster High School, and Western Carolina Teachers College. After serving in the U. S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he returned to Sylva and worked for his father-in-law, Gilbert Bess, in the Sylva Pharmacy. He completed his degree at WCTC and later received a pharmacy degree from the University of Florida in 1959. He returned to the Sylva Pharmacy and later opened Eastgate Pharmacy where he worked until his retirement. This pharmacist, lifelong Democrat, and creative father to two families sculpted snow dragons, made wooden sleds and stilts, and built playhouses for his children. He sketched, painted, and made baskets. And for years he kept a 35mm Kodak camera within arm's reach, photographing mountains and streams and skies, but his favorite subject was people: his children, relatives, customers, and East Fork Baptist Church homecomings. A natural athlete, he played basketball in high school, wrestled in college, and walked on his hands while excited youngsters followed to retrieve coins from emptied pants pockets. After retirement he enjoyed sports broadcasts, tolerating cold winters because he knew basketball's March Madness and baseball's summer days followed. Leo loved words and loved reading. He treasured a Webster's dictionary which he perused and used until the worn pages fell apart and destroyed alphabetical order. He worked crossword puzzles and was a cryptoquote master. His October 19, 2001 deciphered cryptoquote stated: "There are people who if they ever reach heaven will commence at once looking for their own set." Leo said author Josh Billings "must have been kin or grew up on East Fork. If not on East Fork, it could not have been farther away than Pumpkintown." An all-consuming interest in history—local, regional, and national—led him from Jackson County genealogical publications to Shelby Foote's Civil War volumes and presidential biographies. Above all, Leo was a storyteller blessed with a phenomenal memory. A granddaughter noted that he could tell a story better than anyone. He delighted in the telling (and the retelling, retelling, and retelling), in the colorful characters from his past and from his past's past, and in the place, which was usually his familiar corner of Jackson County. His stories were often funny: sad-funny or poignant-funny or absurd-funny or just funny-funny. For family, his storytelling was a gift, the by-product of a rich, creative mind and a long, well-lived life, a well-lived life of almost ninety-six years. Preceding in death were Leo's parents; three siblings: Bennie Settlemyre, R.D. Cowan, and Bryant Cowan; and grandson Tyler Stockman. Surviving are his wife Kathryn (Kayce) Curran, a native of Mount Vernon Ohio, and their children: Siara Blackwood (Ben) of Asheville; Royce (Natalie) of Waynesville; and Rye of Tuckasegee. Also surviving is brother-in-law Butch Curran of Tuckasegee, Leo's breakfast co-chef. Also surviving are children Sandra Murray (Tom) of Florence, Alabama; Carla Stockman (Bruce) of Morristown, Tennessee; Kim Cowan (Debby) of Sylva; and Melissa Smith (Kirk) of Sylva. Eleven grandchildren—Greg Childress, Chad Childress, Lynn Luxemburger, Laura Reynolds, Jed Cowan, Will Cowan, Emily Cowan, Lorraine Carver, Daniel Smith, Rose Blackwood, Lillian Cowan—and fifteen great-grandchildren survive. Surviving siblings are Bernice Higdon of Yuba City, California, Lloyd Cowan of Sylva, and many nieces and nephews. Leo was buried in East Fork's Licklog Cemetery on family land he and Ole Dan plowed as a youth. An ancient native flame azalea grows beside the grave that faces the Panther Knob. He wanted to be buried in a hollow black-gum log but settled for a coffin of wormy chestnut made by son-in-law Kirk Smith. Ever the wordsmith (and humorist), Leo wrote his own epitaph. At his request, I AM A WAS will be inscribed on his gravestone. .