Mrs. Louise Lautier Owens

Mrs. Louise Lautier Owens, 95, transitioned on Monday, July 4, 2016 at her residence surrounded by her loving family.

Funeral services for Mrs. Louise Lautier Owens will be held 10:00 A.M., Monday, July 11, 2016 at First Congregational Church located 421 Habersham St. Pastor G. Lind Taylor, Pastor. Rev. Anslem Springer, Eulogist.

Interment: Beaufort National Cemetery, Beaufort, SC.

Public viewing will be held beginning 8:30 A.M. until the hour of service at the church on Monday.

OBITUARY:

Louise Odessa Lautier was a native of New Liberia, Louisiana.  She was born on October 18, 1920 to Louis R. Lautier and Edith Mae McGruder. In 1947, her father, a journalist with the Atlanta Daily World and the National Negro Publishers Association, became the first African American admitted to the congressional press galleries.  He also was a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Louise came to Savannah at an early age to live with her grandparents, Duncan and Mamie McGruder Pringle. She began her education at St. Mary’s Catholic School and in 1933 graduated from Benedict Junior High School. She continued her education on the campus of Georgia State College which would later become Savannah State College earning her BA degree in 1939 with high honors. In 1945 she received a certificate in Linguistics and the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language from Georgetown University School of Language and Linguistics.  She holds the Master of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Horace H. Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan, which she received in 1947.  She married Frederick E. Owens an Ocilla native who lived in Savannah all of his life on December 19, 1950. They met as college students at Savannah State and were together until he passed in 1991.

Louise Lautier Owens began her life’s work at Powell Laboratory School on the Savannah State campus.  Her professional assignments there included chairman pro tem of the English Department, director of the 1981 Institutional Self-Study for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, faculty sponsor of the Tiger’s Roar student newspaper and membership on innumerable departmental and campus committees. She has worked in many different capacities over fifty plus years with the University-sponsored Press Institute. She continued this commitment to journalism into retirement. Upon retirement, Mrs. Owens received the Professor Emeritus of English designation from the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia for service at Savannah State University, her alma mater.

She has been cited in Outstanding Educators of America, has been recognized as a Humanities Scholar by the Georgia Endowment for the Humanities and was named “Alumnus of the Year” by Savannah State Alumni. She was a life member of Savannah State University National Alumni Association, University of Michigan Alumni Association, College Language Association, National Council of Teacher of English, Phi Delta Kappa Honor Society in Education and the Langston Hughes Society.

 Mrs. Owens was a long-time member of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, where she served on the Executive Board and the Cultural Arts Committee. She was designated Board Member Emeritus of Greenbriar Children’s Center for her more than thirty years of service. She was a founding member of the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, and she worked with a group of teachers who established an African American Girl Scout Troop on the Georgia State College campus prior to official integration of the Girl Scouts in Chatham County. Other community service affiliations have included Family Counseling Center, United Way, Savannah Arts Commission, Youth Futures Authority and Cuyler-Brownville Community Association.

Funeral services for Mrs. Louise Lautier Owens will be held 10:00 A.M., Monday, July 11, 2016 at First Congregational Church located 421 Habersham St. Rev. G. Lind Taylor, Pastor.

Rev. Anslem Springer, Eulogist.  

Interment: Beaufort National Cemetery, Beaufort, SC.

Public viewing will be held beginning 8:30 A.M. until the hour of service at the church on Monday. Mrs. Owens is survived by a host of cousins, relatives and friends. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to First Congregational Church Building Fund.

Please convey your thoughts and remembrances of Mrs. Owens using the links on our website: www.AdamsFuneralServicesInc.com

SERVICES