BOWE STORIES

BOWE STORIES2024-02-11T02:27:45+00:00

Bill Bowe on the origins of Riots & Rockets:

“In early 2020, I feared my increased irritability during the ensuing lockdown could be a telltale sign I was descending rapidly into curmudgeonhood. Thinking this would be unfair to the dogs, not to mention my wife, Cathy, I decided I needed a project to keep my head straight. I started thinking and writing about several of the strange periods I had lived through in the years since my graduation from law school in 1967."

Mary Gwinn Bowe and The 1960 Kennedy Presidential Campaign

Editor's Note: In 1960, John F. Kennedy was running for President. After a September campaign event in our apartment living room with Ethel and Joan Kennedy, the wives of his JFK's brothers Robert and Edward Kennedy, my mother joins the soon-to-be-elected President at an event in his Chicago campaign office. Also attending are then Mayor Richard J. Daley, and later Mayor Jane Byrne.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker Comes to Call

As an empty nester living in a cul-de-sac of eight houses in Northbrook, IL, I was hard at work minding my own business Saturday morning. I was reading the newspaper on my living room sofa when Cathy answered a knock on our front door. When her short conversation finished, I asked her who it was. She said the Governor was nearby and would be knocking on our door shortly.

Curriculum Vitae

CURRICULUM VITAE WILLIAM J. BOWE wbowe1@gmail.com PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 1986 - 2014, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Chicago, IL Retired [...]

MGB (1901-02): The Early Years before Deal

Editor's Note: In this clip, Tony Bowe asks about my mother's childhood. When her mother, Agnes Roche Gwinn dies giving birth to her in 1901, I explain how my mother came to be largely raised by her father Richard Gwinn, Jr.'s mother, Elizabeth Agnes Burns Gwinn.

Things

A sample of the galleries you will find here include VISIT THE GALLERIES Editor's Note: Photos in the Things galleries are always [...]

6 The Canavans Abandon Ship

The Canavan related crowd abandoned ship in good order and surprisingly quickly. The rapidity of their departure was driven no doubt by the desire not to miss a minute of the approaching cocktail hour at The Cliff Dwellers.

The Impossible Dream – Renaming the Reid Murdoch Building

Unfortunately I got carried away at the end and proposed that the name of the Reid Murdoch Building be changed to the Bowe Building. From the laughter and smirks on the faces of my kin, I could see they hadn’t been persuaded. That night I cried myself to sleep, knowing the Bowe Building would never come to be.

1 From the Riverwalk to Wolf Point

Out chartered tour boat proceeded west towards Wolf Point, passing under the DuSable, Rush, State, Dearborn, Clark, LaSalle, Wells and Franklin bascule bridges over the Chicago River. Our docent guide from the Chicago Architectural Foundation filled us in on the significance of the City’s famous buildings along this stretch of the River.

The Navy Blue Angels Practice

On Friday, August 20, 2021, I went down to The Cliff Dwellers early for lunch. I wanted to catch the morning practice session of the Navy’s Blue Angels. They didn’t disappoint. Errol Garner playing Avalon couldn’t keep up with them.

2004 Bali, Indonesia

For their final stop in Southeast Asia in 2004, Andy and Bill Bowe flew from Bangkok to Bali, a tropical island in eastern Indonesia.

2004 Bangkok, Thailand

In 2004, after their stop in Cambodia, Andy and Bill Bowe took the short flight south to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

2004 Angkor Wat, Cambodia

After our stop in Ho Chi Minh City, Andy Bowe and I took a short flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see the Khmer temple ruins at Angkor Wat.

2014 New Orleans to Memphis

Editor’s Note: In September 2014 my son Andy Bowe and I flew from Chicago to New Orleans. After a day in the French Quarter and a night at the Hilton on the Mississippi, we boarded the newly built Queen of the Mississippi.

2014 Up, Up and Away to Indianapolis

On October 26th, 2014, Steve Heineman piloted Carol Teuscher and me to Indianapolis and back. Flying in his Cessna 185 Skywagon, we departed in the morning from Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, Illinois, had lunch at Rick's Cafe Boatyard at the Eagle Creek Airport in Indianapolis, and then returned that afternoon.

1981 Julie Anne Bowe Thompson (1931-1981)

Julie Anne Bowe Thompson was the daughter of Augustine Joseph Bowe and Julia Leonie Lecour Bowe. She was born in 1931, three years after her only sibling John Edward Bowe was born. As a young child she often navigated her Chicago block with John in a stroller he had recently outgrown.

Mary Gwinn Bowe Materials

1970 The Families, by Mary Gwinn Bowe 1970 Mary Gwinn Bowe Before & After Chicago, from The Families 1960-09-16  Mary Bowe Hosts Kennedy [...]

William John Bowe, Sr. Materials

William John (Patrick) Bowe was born in Chicago at 1024 West Superior Street on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1893. He died December 30, 1965, at the age of seventy-two. I never heard him use or be called by his extra middle name Patrick. His mother was Ellen Frances Canavan. His father was John Joseph Bowe. He was a bright child, rather destructive, had all the infant diseases, loved animals and sports, and was well-liked and very sociable.

1970 Mary Gwinn Bowe Recalls Her Life Before Chicago in The Families

In the "Before Chicago" part of her remembrances in The Families, Mary Gwinn Bowe recalls the period in her life before her marriage in 1928 to my father, William John Bowe, Sr. After her own mother Mary Agnes Roche died giving birth to her in 1901, she was brought up by her father's mother, Elizabeth Agnes Burns Gwinn. Mary always called her "Mama." Being a widowed by then with modest resources, she made ends meet by managing a rooming house on the Atlantic shore in Deal, New Jersey. Mary goes on to talk about her schooling, the excitement of being on the New Jersey State women's basketball championship team at Asbury Park High School and her fortuitous entrance at the 11th hour to Trinity College in Washington, D.C.

2021 Old Chicago

Editor's Note: Here is a collection of photos and postcards of a now lost Chicago shown at The Cliff Dwellers at a Canavan Family [...]

The Families

Editor's Note. In 1970 my mother Mary Gwinn Bowe published 500 copies of The Families, her book of family stories and genealogy. It was [...]

The Generations

Editor's Note: In 1959 my aunt Julia Lecour Bowe published The Generations, a scholarly history of her French Pallissard ancestors. She recorded their French [...]

1997 Hamster Heaven Home

Editor's Note. At his grandparents home in Springfield, Illinois, Pat Bowe puts together a multi-story McMansion for his newly arrived hamster. After thinking about [...]

Bowe Family Trees

Gus and Julia Bowe Tree Gus, John, Julia and Julie Ann Bowe Apartment 4D 1947 Your Content Goes Here Mary & Bill Bowe [...]

Anthony Canavan

Anthony Canavan, Sr. was a native of Ireland, his birth occurring in County Mayo in 1822. He was one o f a family of eleven children born to Anthony and Catherine Kirby (“Kittie”) Canavan.

SEARCH BY CATEGORY

Go to Top