Remembering Hershell Gower

Saying goodbye is often 

another way of saying 

"I remember."

My cousin Hershell Orley Gower passed away this past Thursday evening, August 13. He died from Covid 19 in Bullhead City, Arizona where he and Shelly have lived for many years. Our heart felt condolences go out to Shelley and to Hershell's sons Shaun and Lloyd and their families. 

Hershell and Janet on their wedding day
October, 1966, Ploughley, England

Hersh had the distinction of being the first Gower grandchild to be born in California. His mother Starlene Bass Gower was actually pregnant with him when she and husband Hendrix Gower with Grandpa Gower migrated to San Diego in the early summer of 1942. After Grandpa Gower and Hendrix found jobs, they sent for the other members of the family they had left behind in Okemah, Oklahoma -- my mom Maida, my aunt Vicki, and Grandma Nola Gower.  In December of that same year Grandma and the two Gower daughters arrived by bus in San Diego. Though conceived in Oklahoma, Hershell was born in San Diego in February of 1943 just two months after the family was reunited in Southern California. 

Hershell grew up in the Claremont area of San Diego where his parents Hendrix and Starlene owned a home for many years. Hershell, like his brother Jim, graduated from Mission Bay High School. After finishing High School in 1962, Hershell enlisted in the United States Air Force and was stationed in England. While in the U.K. he met an English woman named Janet Nolan and married here there in the fall of 1966. (See first picture. Thanks to Lloyd's wife Tammy for posting this picture on Facebook.) Hershell and Janet's first child Shaun was born in England in 1967. I remember the happiness of our whole family when Hershell, Janet and Shaun returned to San Diego in 1968 and Grandma and Grandpa Gower were presented with their first Great Grandchild.

I always looked up to Hershell when we were kids. He was the oldest of us 12 cousins, the dozen grandchildren of Leroy and Nola Gower. Hersh was the one who led the way when we cousins got together. He was the first to tell the off color jokes, the first to play the pranks, and the first one to feel on his behind Grandma’s disciplinary switch. He also showed us how to appreciate the cobblers and Tommy Tarts that Grandma Gower loved to cook. 

Hershell, his father Hendrix Gower and his grandmother
Nola Gower on her 100th Birthday celebration
in 2003 in Anacortes, Washington

Though he lived for a period of time in Oak Harbor, Washington in the 1990s, most of Hershell's life was spent in the San Diego area. He was a plumber for many years, a skill he taught his sons Lloyd and Shaun. His later years were spent in the retirement community of Bullhead City, Arizona. In Arizona he contracted Covid 19 and spent the last month in the hospital struggling with the Virus.

Though the firstborn of the 12 Gower grandchildren, Hershell was not the first to go. My sister Linda Shepard Clark died tragically in a car accident in 1971 at just 20 years old. Her death occurred 49 years ago this month. In 2016 our cousin Gloria Harrell Watson was taken from us at 63 years old. Hershell now is the third of those dozen cousins to pass away. At just 3 years short of 80, he lived a good life, leaves a good family, and will be missed by his family and friends. May God grant him eternal peace.

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Steve Shepard

(he, him, his)