Mary Ellen Rowley Kauzlarich, 105, died December 4, 2024, at Courtyard Estates in Monmouth, Illinois. She was born March 10, 1919, to Nona Clarine Morris Rowley and Joe Nixon Rowley at the family farm in Bluff Township, Henderson County, Illinois. She attended Belmont School and Monmouth High School. Mary Ellen was a 1941 graduate of Monmouth College and a member of Kappa Delta. She married fellow classmate George Kauzlarich on October 24, 1942, in Warwick, RI. George was a Navy petty officer stationed at Quonset Point. After he was deployed to the South Pacific, Mary Ellen returned to Monmouth, Illinois, where their first daughter was born. After the war George and Mary Ellen began farming with her father, Joe Rowley. They farmed the Rowley family farm from 1945 until George’s death September 27, 1981. Mary Ellen was actively involved in managing her farm for many years.
Mary Ellen and Lelia Olson began teaching at the Seaton Grade School in 1957, retiring in 1981 when Seaton School closed. Mary Ellen moved to Monmouth, IL in 2005. She moved to Courtyard in 2014 and lived across the hall from Ruth Carwile, her high school and college roommate.
Surviving are four daughters: Susan Kuster and Cynthia Ocken, Monmouth, Illinois, Sally (Erwin) Gernand, West Chicago, IL, and Toni (Bill) Hesseltine, Lone Tree, Iowa, 8 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren. Mary Ellen was preceded in death by her parents Joe and Nona, husband George, brother Bill, sisters Ruth Margaret Vance and Dorothy Ann Young, brother-in-law Lee Young, son-in-law Clarence Kuster, and all her first cousins.
Cremation has been accorded, and services will be held later. Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Foundation. For more information, or to leave a remembrance of Mary Ellen, please visit www.turnbullfuneralhomes.com.
