Born a Century Ago

Eugene Shepard with wife Maida
San Diego, 1975

Today is the 100th birthday of my father Eugene William Shepard (1921-2003). He was born exactly 100 years ago, out on the family farm in the rural community of Logan, Oklahoma, some 15 miles southeast of the county seat of Beaver, Oklahoma. He was the third child of William Shepard and Bura Davis Shepard, whose family struggled to make ends meet farming in the Oklahoma Panhandle. My father was a kind and gentle man who never thought too highly of himself. He was a devoted father of his and Maida’s 6 children and thoroughly enjoyed them as well as his 9 grandchildren, who were born between 1968 and 1993. He also had great respect for his own parents who both finished their lives living in Mom and Dad’s home. 

His first 8 years were spent on the farm in Beaver County. The family then lived for 12 years in rural Southeast Colorado where he graduated from Two Buttes High School, being one of just 7 graduates in the class of 1939. In 1940, as a lanky 19 year old, he and his family migrated from Two Buttes, Colorado to San Diego, California. It was not only a great distance geographically, but an even greater distance socially and economically from quiet, dusty Two Buttes to wartime Southern California and the burgeoning city of San Diego. 

Grandmother Nola Shannon Gower
December, 1976

Soon after arriving in San Diego, Gene met a young woman named Maida Gower. Theirs was a challenging wartime romance. Since he was in the Navy and stationed 100 miles away in Orange County, he could only visit her on the weekends. But finally his military stint ended and they were married at the El Cajon Blvd Church of Christ in the spring of 1945. Their life together began just as WWII was coming to an end. They spent the next 33 years together making a good life for themselves in San Diego and raising their 6 children. In 1978 they left the big city for small town life in Anacortes, Washington where Gene spent the last 25 years of his life. His family and his Church were the two most important loves of his life. A big reason for his and Maida's move to Washington was to support the Fidalgo Island Church of Christ.

I honor my father on this 100th anniversary of his birth. He died in 2003 at home on Wildwood Lane after a long struggle with COPD. I accept the honor of helping his memory live on. I owe him that much. He came from a wonderful set of parents, and he left a great legacy: a wife who has now outlived him by 18 years (and counting), 6 children, and 9 grandchildren, all of whom have great respect for his memory and who proudly affirm their family of origin. We his children and grandchildren continue to lift up his memory and remember with fondness the great person he was. Thanks be to God for the life of Eugene Shepard.

Phil Wilk and Beverly Russell
San Diego about 1965

I cannot remember my father Eugene Shepard without also remembering two other family members, one of whose birthday was also today, and the other whose birthday was yesterday.

Nola Shannon Gower (1903-2004). My maternal Grandmother Nola Shannon Gower was born April 28, 1903 in Mountain View, Arkansas. Her early years were spent in Arkansas until she and husband Leroy Gower moved to Oklahoma in 1925. They then settled in San Diego in 1942 and lived there until Leroy died in 1974. Grandma Gower remained in her home on Lynne Street for 23 more years until she moved to Anacortes, Washington in 1997 where she died at 101 years old in 2004. 

Beverly Russell Wilk (1939-1974). Yesterday would have been the 82nd birthday of my cousin Beverly Russell Wilk, had she not died tragically in 1974 of a brain aneurism. Beverly was a beautiful woman whose life was cut tragically short but whose family line continues through her daughter Shannon Wilk and her granddaughter Emma Wilk. Shannon and Emma live today in Atchison, Kansas. Yesterday Shannon posted on Facebook several old pictures of her mother Beverly. It was great to see these old photos and to remember those days. One of those pictures I have included in this post.
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Steve Shepard
(he/him/his)