America's "Greatest Generation" is yet again diminished by the passing of another of the WWII era alumni.  Mary McKinney Lowe of Lowgap, NC passed away on Thursday, April 4, after a lengthy battle with vascular disease and its side effects.  Mary was born in 1927 to Mount Airy residents, James Robert ("Pete") McKinney and Blanche Reece McKinney.  Much of her youth was spent on her father's dairy farm on Haystack Road where she reveled in outdoor activities and, in her words, "following Papa Pete around the farm."  For a period of her young life she also lived with an aunt inside the Mount Airy City limits while her mother recuperated from an extended bout with breast cancer.  During that period she attended Rockford Street School with Andy Griffith.  In her later years Mary loved to reminisce about that time as she watched (and rewatched) episodes of Matlock and the Andy Griffith Show.

Mary could trace her maternal lineage back to 1700's Wales from which her ancestors (last name, Rhys) originated.  She was the fourth of four children, sharing her young life with older brothers Wade, Frank and Robert McKinney.

After graduation from secondary school, Mary attended Meredith College but circumstances created by WWII led her to leave early and become a teacher at Lowgap School.  The principal of Lowgap School, being in need of a teacher at war's end, requested of Mary that she come and teach in the elementary grades.  She (as did other college attendees at that time) left Meredith prematurely and moved to Lowgap to instruct fourth graders.  Mary would ultimately work forty years for the Surry County Public School System as a teacher (during those early years) and as administrative assistant at both Lowgap and Beulah Elementary Schools.  During those first years at Lowgap, Mary met and fell in love with returning veteran, Lester "Junior" Lowe.  They married in 1947, made their home in Lowgap and would have one child, Dennis.

Both Junior and Mary were loyal members of Mountain View Baptist Church, where Mary served as pianist.  It was evident from Mary's willingness to serve, that she enjoyed helping neighbors in her community by playing piano for weddings/funerals/receptions, sharing cooked meals with those experiencing difficulties, babysitting children, pampering the young students of Lowgap and Beulah Schools and teaching the children's classes of Mountain View Church.  A quiet type that shunned being in front of a camera, Mary always seemed willing to step forward when she thought she could be of assistance to others.

She is preceded in death by both parents, all her siblings, her beloved husband, "Junior" and a niece (Dianne Putnam) whom she also loved dearly. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Dennis and Sherry Lowe, and two nephews and their wives, Wade and Polly McKinney and Mike and Leah McKinney.

A memorial service will be held at Mountain View Church in Lowgap at 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 6.  The family will receive friends in the church sanctuary two hours prior to the service.

It was Mary's wish that, instead of food or flowers, any donations to her memory be made to Mountain View Baptist Church of Lowgap (P.O Box 68).