Lona Kennedy Sowell

Graveside services for Lona Kennedy Sowell will be held 10:00 AM, Friday, July 10, 2020 at the Green Hill Cemetery in Davis with Brother Thomas Thompson officiating.

Lona was born April 18, 1931 in Pauls Valley, OK to the late Joseph Lewis and Iva Bell (Tallant) Kennedy. She went to her Heavenly Home on Sunday, June 28, 2020 in Murrietta, CA, at the age of 89.

Lona grew up in the Sulphur area, graduating from Sulphur High School in 1949. On March 18, 1950, she and Donald Lee Sowell were united in marriage. In 1952, the young couple moved from Oklahoma to California, where they raised their three children, Donise, Karen, and Christopher. While living in California, Lona spent a few years working for J.C. Penney Corp, prior to working for Almaden Vineyards and Monterey Farming, another vineyard. In 1982 Don, Lona, and Chris returned to Sulphur. She worked and assisted with the development of Five Lakes Community and Cedar Blue. She later went to work for Chickasaw Telephone Company as an operator, where she spent 26 years, retiring at the age of 83.

Survivors include her three children, Lona Donise Sowell, Karen Aenease Downum and her husband Jake and Christopher Lewis Sowell and his wife Debera; two brothers, George Kennedy and Jodie Kennedy; sister-in-law Rene Ann Kennedy; as well as eight grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

In addition to her parents, Lona was preceded in death by her husband Donald in March 1985 and her youngest brother, Eugene “Fuzz” Kennedy in February 2016.