Complete 2012 Journal - 2012 NC Conference Journal

Section Vi: Historical Records 309
With a BS in Elementary Education from Douglas College, formerly the female part of what
is now known as Rutgers University and a Masters in Child Psychology, she had an enduring
love for small children. She was involved in many Methodist Church Child Care programs,
taught Sunday School and Children’s Church in Delran, N.J., New Bern, N.C., and at Tuttle’s
Grove United Methodist Church in Beaufort, N.C.
While serving as pastor of Pollocksville Methodist Church, she started a program to provide
weekend meals for needy children at Pollocksville Elementary School. Called “Blessings In
A Backpack”, each Friday children receive a backpack containing a weekend’s worth of nonperishable
food and an optional blessing from local church members. Members from four
local churches package the meals, fill the donated backpacks, and pass them out on Friday.
On Monday the children return with an empty backpack and a full stomach, ready to learn.
Now in its fourth year, the program presently feeds 110 children at Pollocksville Elementary
School.
A trust she established shortly before her death provides most of the funding for this program
at Pollocksville Elementary School.
Patricia Smith Owen
1933 - 2011
Patricia Smith Owen, 77, beloved wife of the late Rev. J. Malloy
Owen, III, went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ on August 9, 2011 after a long and courageous battle
with multiple system atrophy.
She was born Vivian Patricia Smith on August 14, 1933, in
Smith Chapel (Wayne County), N.C., to George W. and
Blanche Smith. Pat spent most of her childhood in Fayetteville
and her youth in Greenville, N.C., where she earned a B.A. in
business at East Carolina College.
While a high school teacher, she married Malloy and together
they served St. James’s MC in Greenville; Horne Memorial MC
in Clayton; St. Mark’s UMC in Raleigh; the New Bern District (where Pat was the supremely
capable District Secretary); Jarvis Memorial UMC in Greenville; and the Goldsboro District
(where she was again District Secretary). Following the death of Malloy in 1994 she lived in
Charlotte and then in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A genuine lady, of rare beauty and grace, with a wry wit and inexhaustible kindness, she
ministered by teaching and example to countless children – including her own three – and
adults wherever she went. She took a special interest in Susannah Wesley and the Wesley
family, and, like her husband, was concerned to call the UMC back to its historic biblical
roots and to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Pat delighted in serving her Lord and
made life sweeter for all who knew her.
She is survived and deeply missed by her daughter Patricia Owen Palardy (Mark) of
Charlotte, and sons John Malloy Owen, IV (Trish) of Charlottesville, Virginia, and James
Judd Owen (Marion) of Decatur, Georgia; her sisters Martha Cox of Greenville and Emily
Rouse (Edward) of Winterville, N.C.; brother Nelson Smith ( Joanne) of Columbia, N.C.;