Aunt Mary Frances Lowry

by Joe Lowry

Mary Frances Lowry was born in Helena, Ark., on Feb. 4, 1906. Her father was a cotton man who moved his family to Memphis from Helena in 1923 on the Kate Adams packet boat. The family lived at 265 Lewis Street, just north of Poplar Avenue.

She attended Maury Elementary, graduated from Tech High School, as well as Columbia University and Washington University School of Music in St Louis.

When she returned to Memphis in1939, Miss Lowry taught music at several private schools. She started her own school (for music at first, later adding academic subjects) at 808 N. Evergreen in 1943 and expanded the school in 1950, purchasing a large duplex at 1087 N. McLean at Edward Avenue. She employed three teachers and taught kindergarten through eighth grade. High school grades were added in 1953.

Miss Lowry had a special talent for teaching students what they needed to be successful in life. She taught all students, especially ones with learning disabilities. In the 1950s and 60s,  disabilities such as dyslexia had not been identified and were not understood. She taught students who had been expelled from regular schools and those who were having a difficult time learning in city schools.[1] Three teachers, Mrs. Shumaker and Mrs. Sandifer, taught various grades.

Miss Lowry also was an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor who had been trained at the American Red Cross-National Aquatics School. For more than 30 years, she taught more than 1,000 Memphians to swim. She also taught blind and handicapped people to swim.

She taught piano, guitar and organ to hundreds of music students and was an involved member of the Beethoven Club. Miss Lowry was past president of the Altrusa Club and a lifelong member of the YWCA. She was a member of First Presbyterian Church for more than 50 years.

Family members called her Auntie. Christmas gatherings were always special in her big house, which had just about anything a bunch of kids could get into.

I learned many lessons from her that helped me be able to do my job better. She once told me that students only remember a third of what you teach them, so teach them what they must know to make it in this world.

“There are those people who watch things happen, people who wonder what happened, and there are those who make things happen.” Mary Francis Lowry made positive things happen for everyone whose life she touched.

She died of cancer on Sept. 18, 1973. She was 67 years old.

[1] I have talked to several of her former students, who said they felt like they were special, and her training prepared them for life with skills that were not taught in city schools.