Bowman turns 100, jokes it’s ‘too long’

By Phil Cobb | January 15, 2021 |

US NAVY PHOTO
Alfred Bowman is shown Aug. 2, 1962 during his honorary discharge ceremony held at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Bowman was honorably discharged after serving 20 years in the U.S. Navy and serving in World War II.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — On Jan. 10, 1921, Francis Edgar Bowman and Amanda Ethleyn (Nelson) Bowman, Elmo, welcomed into the world their youngest of four children, Alfred Cecil Bowman. Last Sunday he turned 100 years old.

In one of the most technologically savvy ways to talk with someone today, Bowman chatted with The Forum using Zoom.

He joked that 100 years is “too long,” for a person to live, but that the way to do it is to stay busy.

Bowman has done just that. Joining the U.S. Navy in 1942, he served as an aviation electrician during World War II and continued serving on numerous crafts.

He served on many ships with some of his most memorable being the USS Saipan (commissioned in 1946), a light aircraft carrier and the USS Forrestal, a super-carrier that brought air power to and from the sea in military operations, according to a letter written by his daughter Debby Hayes.

Some of his most memorable ports of liberty (leave) included Barcelona, Spain; Paris, France; and Naples and Rome in Italy. But it was his home ports back in the U.S. that provided Bowman with the memories of a lifetime.

In 1948 he met and married his wife Dorothy in Norfolk, Virginia. In Jacksonville, Florida, his son Charles was born in 1952. Proving his dedication to the Navy, Bowman purchased a portable mobile home for smoother transitions between bases including to Pensacola, Florida, and San Diego, California, where his daughter Debby was born in 1956.

The family then relocated to McGuire, New Jersey, where in 1962 Bowman was honorably discharged.

It’s here in his timeline that Bowman returned to Nodaway County settling in Maryville with his family, just 25 miles from his birthplace and boyhood home.

“A lot of people have asked my dad, ‘How did you choose to settle in Maryville after traveling all over the world and being stationed from coast to coast?’” Hayes wrote.

On their way back to California — where the Bowmans had planned to settle — they stopped in Clearmont, to visit Bowman’s mother, Amanda. During that visit Bowman’s older sister Velma Kinman spoke of a job opening at Lloyd Chain (now Laclede Chain). After applying, he was hired immediately and the family found a home in Maryville.

Bowman worked there until he retired in 1984, but he didn’t slow down then. Bowman has remained active in civic organizations including Kiwanis Club where he is a past president, and the First United Methodist Church where he has served hundreds, maybe thousands of hours volunteering and as head usher for many years.

He has been an avid walker for many years, “20 now,” he told The Forum. Though he used to enjoy walking outdoors, he joined the Maryville Community Center and now walks mostly indoors.

When asked if he had any secrets to living a long life, Bowman noted hard work is the key. With his career in the military and service during the war, it would seem he has proven his case.

Bowman is part of the remaining less than 2 percent of World War II veterans alive today. Of the 16 million Americans who served in the war, only around 325,574 are alive, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

He told The Forum that on his birthday he received more than 100 cards wishing him well and thanking him for his service to his country. To write him, please send cards to Alfred C. Bowman C/O Debby Hayes, 19168 210th St. Burlington Junction, MO 64428.