Kenneth Lee Bower (Madden/Davis)

Clara Mae - Kenneth - Lee Bower	52 years old

• Kenneth Lee Bower (Madden/Davis) was born on 11 February 1943 in Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, Texas to Clara Mae Bower (Madden/Davis) and James Lee Bower. He only lived in Waco for one year since his dad, Lee was sent from being schooled in B-29 airplane maintenance to an assignment in the Pacific Islands of Siapan and Tinian where he flew many sorties to bomb Japan during WWII. After that time he and his mother Clara Mae went to live in Houston, Texas with her mother Dora Lee Madden (Davis) and father, Fred Madden at 101 Bedford Street. He lived there with his extended family until 1950 when they moved to a new house at 7703 Erath St. He attended Briscoe Elementary from the 1st - 6th grades.

House at 7703 Erath Street

• He lived on Erath Street from 1950 until 1961 when he graduated from Stephen F. Austin High School. While living there he attended Jackson Junior High School from the 7th - 9th grade. In 1961 after graduation from High School he attended Stephen F. Austin State College in Nacogdoches, Texas graduatiing with a B.S. degree in English and Biology with a Texas Teaching Certificate in 1966. During his last year of college he married Linda Kay Lambert from Houston, TX.
• In 1966 after Ken gratuated they moved to Metairie, Louisiana (outside of New Orleans) where he taught high school biology at East Jefferson High Scool. He attended Loyola University in New Orleans receiving a M.Ed. degree in Guidance and Counseling in 1970. They then returned to the Houston area were he was hired by the Alief Independent School District, a suburb of Houston. On August 2, 1972 they had their only son, Todd Allen Bower.
• During his time working for the Alief I.S.D. he had several different positions. These were:
• Teaching biology at East Jefferson High School, Metairie, LA (1966-1970)
• Working in Alief Independent School District, TX (1970-1993) - 8th grade English teacher, guidance counselor, District District Computer Coordinator for Pupil Services, Coordinator of Special Projects, Director of Curriculum and Research, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, and Director of Human Resources.
• He became a Guidance Counselor at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in the Ft. Bend Independent School District, TX (1993-1996) where he retired at age 52.
• For the last six years he taught as an adjunct professor at the  St. Thomas University, Houston, TX. He taught
• English as a Second Language (ESL) TEA endorsement courses at various school districts around the county and a Macintosh computer lab for education majors on campus.
• He divorced Linda Kay Lambert in 1983 and in 1984 married Linda Christine Ross. They lived in the Alief area with their three children, Todd Allen Bower, Ken's son and Amy Ross Acord and Suzanne Alice Acord, Linda's daughters. In 1994 Ken and Linda were divorced.
• Ken lived in the Houston area in an apartment until 1999 during which time Brenda Anderson lived with him.
• In the summer of 1999 Ken left Houston in a new Coachmen motor home pulling a VW van behind. He planned to live in the motor home forever. He was going to spend each winter in an RV park in Texas and travel during the rest of the year. His first tour was of the U.S. southwest and Canada driving from Houston to Hardin, Montana to see the reinactment of Custer's Last Stand and to Calgary, Canada to see the first weekend of the Stampede Rodeo. From there he drove back to the U.S. to Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada into New Mexico. He went to the Intertribal Ceremonies in Gallup, NM where he met Susan Ruth Weiss who was there on business with her company, Neighborhood Housing of Santa Fe (Homewise). They went C&W dancing on their first date and fell in love at the Red Rocks State Park under the August shooting stars. She lived in Santa Fe, NM and he followed her there. They were married on November 9, 1999 and spent their honeymoon in the Tetons at Slide Lake, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
• They moved to Eldorado at Santa Fe in 2000 and bought a house at 7 Cuesta Road on September 25, 2001 which they called Eldorado Windy Farm. Around the property they raised fruit trees, grew vegetables, perennials, various ornamentals and cacus. Ken raised honey bees for six years as well.
• While living in Santa Fe they travelled around the state and went on various vacations together to Alaska, Taiwan, China, Italy, Greece, Hawaii (the Big Island and O'ahu) and Japan. They both became docents at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and Volunteers in Pecos National Historical Park. Ken trained to become a docent/guide at the New Mexico History Museum.
  

• ---