Rowena Womack, longtime Warsaw resident and children’s book author, will celebrate her 90th birthday with an invitation for family and friends to attend her birthday open house April 10 at Pleasant View Bible Church, 2782 W.?CR 200N, Warsaw, from 1 to 4 p.m. The celebration is being hosted by Rowena’s church family and her six children. Cake and finger food will be served. Please, no gifts, although Rowena does appreciate birthday cards for her card collection.
Rowena Surguy Womack was born during the Great Depression with tuberculosis and recontracted the disease at the age of 12. She spent three years in isolation at the Irene Byron Sanatorium in Fort Wayne, one of the youngest patients ever treated for pulmonary tuberculosis with pneumathorax treatment. Despite these early health setbacks, Rowena maintained a thankful spirit and determination to succeed, grating in the top 10% of the Warsaw High School Class of 1951, excelling in speech, debate, writing, music and mathematics. Rowena was inspired by her late mother, Mamie Stevens, of Warsaw, who was the Warsaw High?School Class of 1924 valedictorian.
Rowena considered entering Purdue University to become a lawyer, bet instead fell in love with Don Womack, got married and they eventually had six children: a daughter and five sons. Years later, she became a single mother for 14 years, and today, she counts many grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the family fold. A cancer survivor since the early 1960s, she remains the thankful spirit, guided by her Christian faith. She finds joy in the smallest details of life, much as a child might do. Rowena is the author of children’s illustrated books, including “Popcorn,” the sequel “Popcorn II,” “Yellowstone Moose” (English,?French and Japanese editions, “Goofusus Etc.” and “Tommy Two Shoes,” about a boy who struggles to put the correct shoe on the right foot.
After Rowena’s 90th birthday celebration, she plans to finish a manuscript of poetry of romantic love of octogenarians and older. In the meantime, she looks forward to seeing many friends and family at her 90th birthday celebration April 10.
