Biography as written by Howard's daughter, Brenda Lee (Bowden) Eichmiller:
"My father, Howard Gatliff Bowden, was born in the small community of Gatliff, KY in 1912, where his father was a coal miner. Gatliff, Ky, no longer exists, but there is a reunion there every summer in Whitley Co. for anyone connected to Gatliff. (I discovered this at the KY visitors center near Williamsburg, Ky, where I met an employee who was also born in Gatliff!)
"My Aunt Mary Nell Bowden was also born there in 1914, and, according to writings she left after her death, the family moved to Holden (Logan) WVa in 1917. I suppose my grandfather, John Henry Bowden moved his family there so he could work in the coal mines in that area--he apparently worked for the Island Creek Coal Company for the rest of his career until retirement.
"My Aunt Mary Nell was in the process of writing a family story at the time of her death, and I have taken much of my information about the family from her writings. My father's mother, Icie Oaks Bowden, ran the Albert Boarding House in Holden, WVa--the Albert Boarding House was owned by the Coal company (as was the whole town!), and many coal miners stayed there.
"Howard grew up in Holden, and as a young man was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the purpose of conservation, reforestation, and rural electrification. In a message to Congress on March 21, 1933, President Roosevelt Stated that 'I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work...more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work.'
"My father served in the CCC for one year, the usual term of enrollment. He was a member of Company 1537, Camp S-51 at Huntersville, West Virginia. He entered at Fort Knox, KY, on June 08, 1933, and was honorably discharged on June 30, 1934 (serial no. CC5-30049). He always spoke very fondly of his time spent in the CCC. I have a photograph of his entire company, which I will place in this record at a future date.
"During his time in the CCC, Howard suffered the tragic and untimely death of his mother (August, 1933). Several of his comrades from camp accompanied him home to Holden for her funeral. At the time of her death, she was preparing a box of 'goodies from home' to send to my father--Aunt Mary Nell tells of being sent to the store to buy ingredients for this treat, and when she arrived back home her mother was having an acute asthma attack--she states:
"'When I was coming back from the store, I could see her sitting on the porch with her arms on the bannister railing. I had seen her do that many times during the asthma attacks. I began to walk a little faster. Sure enough, she was having an attack. Dr. Patterson came and stayed all evening, but he could not bring mother out of that one. It was time for dad to come home from work...the ambulance came and took mother to the hospital. She went into a coma during the night. Dad stayed with her all night.'
"'The next morning...he started home for breakfast. Before he could get to the house, a call was waiting for him at the carpenter shop to come back to the hospital. Mother had died just after he left.... Mother had been canning apples and beets that day...the last thing she said when she left the house was 'Now don't you girls let the apples and beets go to waste.' Howard was called to come home. Two young men came home with him for support.'
"My father was very fun-loving and happy-go-lucky. I have fond memories of him singing 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' to me as a child. I also remember him playing the spoons and singing to us. His mother Icie loved to sing--she played the piano, and often had a choir at prayer services at their home (she was too ill to attend church). Aunt Mary Nell wrote 'Mother played with us kids and taught us games to play. She read our fortunes in the tea leaves that settled in the bottom of the tea cup. She told us funny stories to make us laugh. She told us that she was the seventh child of a seventh child and that made her special. She told us that her name was Icie Jemima Delilah, and we believed it! She never did tell us any different.'
"As you can surmise, my dad's personality was apparently much like that of his mother Icie. John Henry was strict and stern, and I never saw any of those characteristics in my dad!
"As far as I know, my father worked in the mines after leaving the CCC--he eventually became a Mine Foreman before leaving West Virginia. He married Effie Hodge in 1936, and I was their first child, born in Holden, WVa in 1939.
"They moved to Oak Ridge, TN when I was young, and I started Kindergarden there. My father worked as a Safety Inspector for Union Carbide Chemical Corp., which was involved in the highly secret Manhattan Project (which eventually resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan to end WWII). He was very artistic, and many of his cartoon drawings were utilized on billboards and in publications advocating safe work practices.
"My parents moved to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1955--my father was transferred there to work on the Dixon-Yates Project, which was eventually abandoned by the government.
"My parents had some rough times during the late 1950s--my brother Jeffrey drowned at the age of sixteen in the Mississippi River. This tragedy was probably the most stressful event in my parents' lives. Dad became ill soon thereafter, and was diagnosed in the early 1960's with a very rare type of lymphoma, CTCL (cutaneous t-cell lymphoma), commonly called "mycosis fungoides" at that time.
"He underwent years of painful treatments for this disease, including painting his skin with nitrogen mustard and total body irradiation at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where there was intensive research being conducted on this disease. He was able to live a fairly full life with the restrictions this disease placed on him--he fished (which he loved!), worked part-time doing a variety of jobs, and was a caring and devoted father to his children remaining at home.
"He became a role model for 'house husbands' at the time, keeping the home fires burning while my mother Effie managed several country clubs and the Kennel Club in West Memphis, Arkansas.
"My parents moved to Georgia in June, 1976--they lived on Jackson Lake, about 25 miles from Atlanta where my brother Robert lived. Dad enjoyed his time there very much.
He would get up before dawn and fish from the lake, as he could not bear to be in the sun (the body radiation had destroyed his sweat glands, and he was not able to tolerate the heat). We also had a family reunion at the lake during that time.
"Dad developed a severe infection early in 1977, and he died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on February 19, 1977, at the age of 64. He was cremated, and my Uncle Cecil Hodge conducted his Funeral Service."
"My father, Howard Gatliff Bowden, was born in the small community of Gatliff, KY in 1912, where his father was a coal miner. Gatliff, Ky, no longer exists, but there is a reunion there every summer in Whitley Co. for anyone connected to Gatliff. (I discovered this at the KY visitors center near Williamsburg, Ky, where I met an employee who was also born in Gatliff!)
"My Aunt Mary Nell Bowden was also born there in 1914, and, according to writings she left after her death, the family moved to Holden (Logan) WVa in 1917. I suppose my grandfather, John Henry Bowden moved his family there so he could work in the coal mines in that area--he apparently worked for the Island Creek Coal Company for the rest of his career until retirement.
"My Aunt Mary Nell was in the process of writing a family story at the time of her death, and I have taken much of my information about the family from her writings. My father's mother, Icie Oaks Bowden, ran the Albert Boarding House in Holden, WVa--the Albert Boarding House was owned by the Coal company (as was the whole town!), and many coal miners stayed there.
"Howard grew up in Holden, and as a young man was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the purpose of conservation, reforestation, and rural electrification. In a message to Congress on March 21, 1933, President Roosevelt Stated that 'I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work...more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work.'
"My father served in the CCC for one year, the usual term of enrollment. He was a member of Company 1537, Camp S-51 at Huntersville, West Virginia. He entered at Fort Knox, KY, on June 08, 1933, and was honorably discharged on June 30, 1934 (serial no. CC5-30049). He always spoke very fondly of his time spent in the CCC. I have a photograph of his entire company, which I will place in this record at a future date.
"During his time in the CCC, Howard suffered the tragic and untimely death of his mother (August, 1933). Several of his comrades from camp accompanied him home to Holden for her funeral. At the time of her death, she was preparing a box of 'goodies from home' to send to my father--Aunt Mary Nell tells of being sent to the store to buy ingredients for this treat, and when she arrived back home her mother was having an acute asthma attack--she states:
"'When I was coming back from the store, I could see her sitting on the porch with her arms on the bannister railing. I had seen her do that many times during the asthma attacks. I began to walk a little faster. Sure enough, she was having an attack. Dr. Patterson came and stayed all evening, but he could not bring mother out of that one. It was time for dad to come home from work...the ambulance came and took mother to the hospital. She went into a coma during the night. Dad stayed with her all night.'
"'The next morning...he started home for breakfast. Before he could get to the house, a call was waiting for him at the carpenter shop to come back to the hospital. Mother had died just after he left.... Mother had been canning apples and beets that day...the last thing she said when she left the house was 'Now don't you girls let the apples and beets go to waste.' Howard was called to come home. Two young men came home with him for support.'
"My father was very fun-loving and happy-go-lucky. I have fond memories of him singing 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' to me as a child. I also remember him playing the spoons and singing to us. His mother Icie loved to sing--she played the piano, and often had a choir at prayer services at their home (she was too ill to attend church). Aunt Mary Nell wrote 'Mother played with us kids and taught us games to play. She read our fortunes in the tea leaves that settled in the bottom of the tea cup. She told us funny stories to make us laugh. She told us that she was the seventh child of a seventh child and that made her special. She told us that her name was Icie Jemima Delilah, and we believed it! She never did tell us any different.'
"As you can surmise, my dad's personality was apparently much like that of his mother Icie. John Henry was strict and stern, and I never saw any of those characteristics in my dad!
"As far as I know, my father worked in the mines after leaving the CCC--he eventually became a Mine Foreman before leaving West Virginia. He married Effie Hodge in 1936, and I was their first child, born in Holden, WVa in 1939.
"They moved to Oak Ridge, TN when I was young, and I started Kindergarden there. My father worked as a Safety Inspector for Union Carbide Chemical Corp., which was involved in the highly secret Manhattan Project (which eventually resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan to end WWII). He was very artistic, and many of his cartoon drawings were utilized on billboards and in publications advocating safe work practices.
"My parents moved to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1955--my father was transferred there to work on the Dixon-Yates Project, which was eventually abandoned by the government.
"My parents had some rough times during the late 1950s--my brother Jeffrey drowned at the age of sixteen in the Mississippi River. This tragedy was probably the most stressful event in my parents' lives. Dad became ill soon thereafter, and was diagnosed in the early 1960's with a very rare type of lymphoma, CTCL (cutaneous t-cell lymphoma), commonly called "mycosis fungoides" at that time.
"He underwent years of painful treatments for this disease, including painting his skin with nitrogen mustard and total body irradiation at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where there was intensive research being conducted on this disease. He was able to live a fairly full life with the restrictions this disease placed on him--he fished (which he loved!), worked part-time doing a variety of jobs, and was a caring and devoted father to his children remaining at home.
"He became a role model for 'house husbands' at the time, keeping the home fires burning while my mother Effie managed several country clubs and the Kennel Club in West Memphis, Arkansas.
"My parents moved to Georgia in June, 1976--they lived on Jackson Lake, about 25 miles from Atlanta where my brother Robert lived. Dad enjoyed his time there very much.
He would get up before dawn and fish from the lake, as he could not bear to be in the sun (the body radiation had destroyed his sweat glands, and he was not able to tolerate the heat). We also had a family reunion at the lake during that time.
"Dad developed a severe infection early in 1977, and he died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on February 19, 1977, at the age of 64. He was cremated, and my Uncle Cecil Hodge conducted his Funeral Service."
Biography as written by Howard's daughter, Brenda Lee (Bowden) Eichmiller:
"My father, Howard Gatliff Bowden, was born in the small community of Gatliff, KY in 1912, where his father was a coal miner. Gatliff, Ky, no longer exists, but there is a reunion there every summer in Whitley Co. for anyone connected to Gatliff. (I discovered this at the KY visitors center near Williamsburg, Ky, where I met an employee who was also born in Gatliff!)
"My Aunt Mary Nell Bowden was also born there in 1914, and, according to writings she left after her death, the family moved to Holden (Logan) WVa in 1917. I suppose my grandfather, John Henry Bowden moved his family there so he could work in the coal mines in that area--he apparently worked for the Island Creek Coal Company for the rest of his career until retirement.
"My Aunt Mary Nell was in the process of writing a family story at the time of her death, and I have taken much of my information about the family from her writings. My father's mother, Icie Oaks Bowden, ran the Albert Boarding House in Holden, WVa--the Albert Boarding House was owned by the Coal company (as was the whole town!), and many coal miners stayed there.
"Howard grew up in Holden, and as a young man was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the purpose of conservation, reforestation, and rural electrification. In a message to Congress on March 21, 1933, President Roosevelt Stated that 'I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work...more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work.'
"My father served in the CCC for one year, the usual term of enrollment. He was a member of Company 1537, Camp S-51 at Huntersville, West Virginia. He entered at Fort Knox, KY, on June 08, 1933, and was honorably discharged on June 30, 1934 (serial no. CC5-30049). He always spoke very fondly of his time spent in the CCC. I have a photograph of his entire company, which I will place in this record at a future date.
"During his time in the CCC, Howard suffered the tragic and untimely death of his mother (August, 1933). Several of his comrades from camp accompanied him home to Holden for her funeral. At the time of her death, she was preparing a box of 'goodies from home' to send to my father--Aunt Mary Nell tells of being sent to the store to buy ingredients for this treat, and when she arrived back home her mother was having an acute asthma attack--she states:
"'When I was coming back from the store, I could see her sitting on the porch with her arms on the bannister railing. I had seen her do that many times during the asthma attacks. I began to walk a little faster. Sure enough, she was having an attack. Dr. Patterson came and stayed all evening, but he could not bring mother out of that one. It was time for dad to come home from work...the ambulance came and took mother to the hospital. She went into a coma during the night. Dad stayed with her all night.'
"'The next morning...he started home for breakfast. Before he could get to the house, a call was waiting for him at the carpenter shop to come back to the hospital. Mother had died just after he left.... Mother had been canning apples and beets that day...the last thing she said when she left the house was 'Now don't you girls let the apples and beets go to waste.' Howard was called to come home. Two young men came home with him for support.'
"My father was very fun-loving and happy-go-lucky. I have fond memories of him singing 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' to me as a child. I also remember him playing the spoons and singing to us. His mother Icie loved to sing--she played the piano, and often had a choir at prayer services at their home (she was too ill to attend church). Aunt Mary Nell wrote 'Mother played with us kids and taught us games to play. She read our fortunes in the tea leaves that settled in the bottom of the tea cup. She told us funny stories to make us laugh. She told us that she was the seventh child of a seventh child and that made her special. She told us that her name was Icie Jemima Delilah, and we believed it! She never did tell us any different.'
"As you can surmise, my dad's personality was apparently much like that of his mother Icie. John Henry was strict and stern, and I never saw any of those characteristics in my dad!
"As far as I know, my father worked in the mines after leaving the CCC--he eventually became a Mine Foreman before leaving West Virginia. He married Effie Hodge in 1936, and I was their first child, born in Holden, WVa in 1939.
"They moved to Oak Ridge, TN when I was young, and I started Kindergarden there. My father worked as a Safety Inspector for Union Carbide Chemical Corp., which was involved in the highly secret Manhattan Project (which eventually resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan to end WWII). He was very artistic, and many of his cartoon drawings were utilized on billboards and in publications advocating safe work practices.
"My parents moved to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1955--my father was transferred there to work on the Dixon-Yates Project, which was eventually abandoned by the government.
"My parents had some rough times during the late 1950s--my brother Jeffrey drowned at the age of sixteen in the Mississippi River. This tragedy was probably the most stressful event in my parents' lives. Dad became ill soon thereafter, and was diagnosed in the early 1960's with a very rare type of lymphoma, CTCL (cutaneous t-cell lymphoma), commonly called "mycosis fungoides" at that time.
"He underwent years of painful treatments for this disease, including painting his skin with nitrogen mustard and total body irradiation at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where there was intensive research being conducted on this disease. He was able to live a fairly full life with the restrictions this disease placed on him--he fished (which he loved!), worked part-time doing a variety of jobs, and was a caring and devoted father to his children remaining at home.
"He became a role model for 'house husbands' at the time, keeping the home fires burning while my mother Effie managed several country clubs and the Kennel Club in West Memphis, Arkansas.
"My parents moved to Georgia in June, 1976--they lived on Jackson Lake, about 25 miles from Atlanta where my brother Robert lived. Dad enjoyed his time there very much.
He would get up before dawn and fish from the lake, as he could not bear to be in the sun (the body radiation had destroyed his sweat glands, and he was not able to tolerate the heat). We also had a family reunion at the lake during that time.
"Dad developed a severe infection early in 1977, and he died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on February 19, 1977, at the age of 64. He was cremated, and my Uncle Cecil Hodge conducted his Funeral Service."
"My father, Howard Gatliff Bowden, was born in the small community of Gatliff, KY in 1912, where his father was a coal miner. Gatliff, Ky, no longer exists, but there is a reunion there every summer in Whitley Co. for anyone connected to Gatliff. (I discovered this at the KY visitors center near Williamsburg, Ky, where I met an employee who was also born in Gatliff!)
"My Aunt Mary Nell Bowden was also born there in 1914, and, according to writings she left after her death, the family moved to Holden (Logan) WVa in 1917. I suppose my grandfather, John Henry Bowden moved his family there so he could work in the coal mines in that area--he apparently worked for the Island Creek Coal Company for the rest of his career until retirement.
"My Aunt Mary Nell was in the process of writing a family story at the time of her death, and I have taken much of my information about the family from her writings. My father's mother, Icie Oaks Bowden, ran the Albert Boarding House in Holden, WVa--the Albert Boarding House was owned by the Coal company (as was the whole town!), and many coal miners stayed there.
"Howard grew up in Holden, and as a young man was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program begun by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the purpose of conservation, reforestation, and rural electrification. In a message to Congress on March 21, 1933, President Roosevelt Stated that 'I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work...more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work.'
"My father served in the CCC for one year, the usual term of enrollment. He was a member of Company 1537, Camp S-51 at Huntersville, West Virginia. He entered at Fort Knox, KY, on June 08, 1933, and was honorably discharged on June 30, 1934 (serial no. CC5-30049). He always spoke very fondly of his time spent in the CCC. I have a photograph of his entire company, which I will place in this record at a future date.
"During his time in the CCC, Howard suffered the tragic and untimely death of his mother (August, 1933). Several of his comrades from camp accompanied him home to Holden for her funeral. At the time of her death, she was preparing a box of 'goodies from home' to send to my father--Aunt Mary Nell tells of being sent to the store to buy ingredients for this treat, and when she arrived back home her mother was having an acute asthma attack--she states:
"'When I was coming back from the store, I could see her sitting on the porch with her arms on the bannister railing. I had seen her do that many times during the asthma attacks. I began to walk a little faster. Sure enough, she was having an attack. Dr. Patterson came and stayed all evening, but he could not bring mother out of that one. It was time for dad to come home from work...the ambulance came and took mother to the hospital. She went into a coma during the night. Dad stayed with her all night.'
"'The next morning...he started home for breakfast. Before he could get to the house, a call was waiting for him at the carpenter shop to come back to the hospital. Mother had died just after he left.... Mother had been canning apples and beets that day...the last thing she said when she left the house was 'Now don't you girls let the apples and beets go to waste.' Howard was called to come home. Two young men came home with him for support.'
"My father was very fun-loving and happy-go-lucky. I have fond memories of him singing 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' to me as a child. I also remember him playing the spoons and singing to us. His mother Icie loved to sing--she played the piano, and often had a choir at prayer services at their home (she was too ill to attend church). Aunt Mary Nell wrote 'Mother played with us kids and taught us games to play. She read our fortunes in the tea leaves that settled in the bottom of the tea cup. She told us funny stories to make us laugh. She told us that she was the seventh child of a seventh child and that made her special. She told us that her name was Icie Jemima Delilah, and we believed it! She never did tell us any different.'
"As you can surmise, my dad's personality was apparently much like that of his mother Icie. John Henry was strict and stern, and I never saw any of those characteristics in my dad!
"As far as I know, my father worked in the mines after leaving the CCC--he eventually became a Mine Foreman before leaving West Virginia. He married Effie Hodge in 1936, and I was their first child, born in Holden, WVa in 1939.
"They moved to Oak Ridge, TN when I was young, and I started Kindergarden there. My father worked as a Safety Inspector for Union Carbide Chemical Corp., which was involved in the highly secret Manhattan Project (which eventually resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan to end WWII). He was very artistic, and many of his cartoon drawings were utilized on billboards and in publications advocating safe work practices.
"My parents moved to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1955--my father was transferred there to work on the Dixon-Yates Project, which was eventually abandoned by the government.
"My parents had some rough times during the late 1950s--my brother Jeffrey drowned at the age of sixteen in the Mississippi River. This tragedy was probably the most stressful event in my parents' lives. Dad became ill soon thereafter, and was diagnosed in the early 1960's with a very rare type of lymphoma, CTCL (cutaneous t-cell lymphoma), commonly called "mycosis fungoides" at that time.
"He underwent years of painful treatments for this disease, including painting his skin with nitrogen mustard and total body irradiation at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, where there was intensive research being conducted on this disease. He was able to live a fairly full life with the restrictions this disease placed on him--he fished (which he loved!), worked part-time doing a variety of jobs, and was a caring and devoted father to his children remaining at home.
"He became a role model for 'house husbands' at the time, keeping the home fires burning while my mother Effie managed several country clubs and the Kennel Club in West Memphis, Arkansas.
"My parents moved to Georgia in June, 1976--they lived on Jackson Lake, about 25 miles from Atlanta where my brother Robert lived. Dad enjoyed his time there very much.
He would get up before dawn and fish from the lake, as he could not bear to be in the sun (the body radiation had destroyed his sweat glands, and he was not able to tolerate the heat). We also had a family reunion at the lake during that time.
"Dad developed a severe infection early in 1977, and he died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on February 19, 1977, at the age of 64. He was cremated, and my Uncle Cecil Hodge conducted his Funeral Service."
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