1934-2024
Ernest Gene Lowe, of Bruceton, Tennessee, died Friday, March 8th surrounded by family on Saint Simons Island, Georgia after a long battle with dementia. He was 89.
Mr. Lowe was born on May 26, 1934, in Bruceton, Tennessee. He was one of 10 children, and the last surviving member of the close community of his brothers, sisters, and their spouses. Mr. Lowe found meaning and purpose through community. He regaled his family members with stories of the people he met and what he learned from them at every opportunity. Mr. Lowe was the undisputed preeminent football and baseball athlete in the long history of the Bruceton-Hollow Rock Central High School. He also participated in basketball, but allowed that others may have, on occasion, equaled his mastery of the hardwood. He was a 2013 inductee to the Carroll County Sports Hall of Fame, and frankly, we are surprised it took them so long to recognize his prowess. He retired from a promising boxing career after a particularly instructive sparring session with a man named “The Rock” he met stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. He taught that if you marry the daughter of a shoe retailer, you should limit your expectations for Christmas gifts to the unsold pairs of shoes still on display at his store on Christmas Eve. After attending college and completing his service in the Army, Mr. Lowe immediately returned home to Bruceton and began a decades-long career with DuPont, retiring in 1992. One of his proudest career achievements was serving his hometown of Bruceton as Mayor. He won a close election, beating a 16-year incumbent northern industrialist. He also served as deacon at First Baptist Church, was on the Board of Trustees at Baptist Hospital of Huntington and was a mainstay as an umpire at Bruceton Little League Baseball. Mr. Lowe was an ardent sports fan. He was a Tennessee Volunteer to the end, a true Vol for Life who passed from this world while donning his lucky Tennessee sweater given to him by his grandsons in the John Ward era of Big Orange glory. In a region of Cardinals, Mr. Lowe was an Atlanta Brave. His aluminum-foil-radio-antenna-modifications designed to intercept Braves broadcasts from WSB 750 AM in Atlanta was the envy of broadcast scientists across the Greater Carroll County area. Mr. Lowe fiercely loved his family and was no stranger to loss. He lost his own father before his sixth birthday. He modeled leadership, patience and long-suffering love as he supported his family through his son Kyle’s fatal 12-year battle with neurological disease. His example of love, patience, and faith through these times in his life serves as an ongoing inspiration to his family to this day.
Mr. Lowe is preceded in death by his parents, Leonard and Ruby Lowe; his wife of 39 years, Fay Jordan Lowe and their son, Kyle Jordan Lowe; his dear siblings and their spouses, Irvin and Lou Lowe, Lucille and Tyler Glisson, Leonard and Frances Lowe, Roy and Gladys Lowe, Velma and Nathan Merrill, Gaylon and Nelle Lowe, Milton Lowe, Ralph and Carole Lowe, and Bobby and Martha Lowe. He is also predeceased by his spouse of 11 years, Sue Talbott Lowe.
He is survived by his two daughters; Jeanie Lenagar of Munford, Tennessee, and Laura Scates, and her husband Dennis, of St. Simons Island, Georgia; four grandsons, Daniel Lenagar (Brigid), and Shonn Lenagar, both of Memphis, Tennessee, Ryan Scates (Kiel) of St. Simons Island, Georgia, and Stephen Scates (Beth) of Charleston, South Carolina; and three great grandsons, R. Andrew Scates, Jr., Kyle Lenagar, and Charles Scates.
