Bewey Bowden went home to be with the Lord on May 20, 2024. A talented and widely known painter, she was also a well-respected speech professor at RTS Jackson and Belhaven University in earlier years.
A native of Mississippi, born on August 23, 1927, she later attended Mississippi College and it was there she met her husband Joseph Bowden. Bewey Bowden began as a teacher at Hardy Jr. High School in Jackson, educating students in the English language. Later, she taught speech and drama at Belhaven University for many years. During her time at RTS, she taught pulpit speech and was the Dean of Women.
A teacher at heart, she easily earned the respect of her students through her compassion and ability to call up the best in them. For Bewey Bowden, speech was not only about the words, she taught the importance of speaking with compassion, modulation and how to deliver a message with realism and an awareness of the depth of concern Christ has for us. Her solid knowledge of theology, strong faith, and reformed way of thinking established her as a professor who not only taught how to have excellence in speech but also displayed and modeled faith and what it means to glorify God in all we do.
“What a special person, a person with a sense of dignity and yet humility. She was gracious, she helped people. Being a teacher, as I understand it, it’s giving all the time, caring about others and helping them along,” said Dr. Ron McKinney, pastor of Kinsey Drive Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga. and former student of Bowden’s both at RTS and Belhaven. “She was a gracious, godly woman who would give glory to God rather than to herself.”
In her later years, she established a reputation for her painting. Her talent also earned recognition as a featured artist in the aRTS Friends Collection at the Jackson campus. She often said it was God’s creation and her desire to glorify Him that inspired the vibrant, colorful paintings of nature for which she was most known.
Bewey Bowden is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Wilkinson, and many other family members. A visitation will be held Saturday, May 25, from 10 to 11 a.m. at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church, 750 S. Pear Orchard Road, Ridgeland, Mississippi 39157, followed by a funeral service at 11 a.m.