Margie Owen

Margie Lee Tanner was born January 20th, 1926 to Henry Robert and Luzella Mae Stewart Tanner in Battleboro, now known as Rocky Mount, NC.

In 1944 she dedicated her life to Jehovah and was baptized in Fairfax, VA.

In 1946 she met the love of her life, Alexander Tazville Owen, or A.T. as most of us knew him. They were married on January 17th, 1947 in Burlington, NC and subsequently moved to Washington, DC and the surrounding Maryland suburbs for the remainder of their lives. In January 2017, the two of them were able to celebrate 70 precious years of marriage together, surrounded by a host of family and friends.

Margie greatly valued her relationship with her God, Jehovah. She was a wonderful and supportive Christian wife to her husband and together they served in the traveling circuit work from 1961–1965. Throughout her life, she found happiness in helping others come to know and develop their own relationships with Jehovah.

One of the greatest joys in life was when Margie‘s brother, Robert Tanner, and his daughter, Debbie, came to live with them in 1956. Although Margie and A.T. had no children of their own, they loved Debbie as if she were their own daughter, helping raise her until her marriage in 1975. Margie’s niece Karen joined them from 1970 until her marriage in 1973. Margie‘s beloved mother, Luzella, also came to live with them for the majority of her remaining years until her death at the remarkable age of 103 in 2003. This became a pattern throughout their lives together, as Margie and A.T. opened their homes and hearts to many over the years creating bonds so strong that countlesds others regarded them as “spiritual parents, grandparents or aunt and uncle."

Margie is survived by her “daughter”, Debbie and family, her sister Jennie Wilson, her niece Karen and family and many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as the large number of those friends who became family through their deep bonds.

Margie and A.T. lived their lives looking intently towards God’s kingdom and the fulfillment of the resurrection hope. Their greatest wish is that all of those that loved them be there to welcome them back… “In Paradise.”