Irene (Key)(Bowen) Cahill
by Pat Calton

My Mother, Irene Cahill, was born and raised in Carroll County,Missouri; near Coloma, Missouri. She grew up and married Otey Bowen andthey had a son, Robert Bowen. She and Otey did various jobs; such asfollowing a threshing crew through Nebraska where Otey worked in thefields and she helped cook for the crew. They lived in a tent thatsummer which was in the early 1920's. After my brother was born Oteyworked in the mines and died of black lung when my brother was only fiveyears old. At this time Irene and Bobbie went to live in Bogard,Missouri with her sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Roy Bingham. Ireneworked in a local cafe where she met my Father, Raymond Patrick (Pat)Cahill. Not sure if she was ready to marry Pat, Irene moved to KansasCity and went to work in the Forum cafeteria. Pat followed her and theywere wed in a quiet ceremony in Kansas City on June 16, 1943. Theyremained married until Pat's death in March, 1990. She helped him in thestores and cafes they ran in the 1950's and when they moved to KansasCity she went to work at Kline's department store and at several nursinghomes. As much as they moved around all she ever really wanted to do wasmove back to Bogard, but this was to never happen. She loved to sew andcrochet and made most of my school clothes. She took extreme pride inher perfect hand-stitched buttonholes which she enjoyed putting down thefront of many shirts and blouses. In the mid 1950's Pat bought her asewing machine that made buttonholes, but she never thought they were asnice as the hand-stitched ones. She spent her later life as a residentof the Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Versailles, Missouri. Otey Bowen isburied in the cemetery at Coloma and Pat Cahill is buried in theVersailles, Missouri cemetery.

1. Robert Eugene Bowen b: 1 Mar 1931

• Married: 16 Jun 1943

1. Living Cahill