Judith “Judy” Kay Bowman, 73, of rural Le Mars (Dalton), died of cancer with her best friend at her side.
Funeral Service will be 11:00 a.m., Saturday, May 31 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Merrill. Visitation will be during a reception following the service at the church. Interment will be June 21st at Pleasant Hill Cemetery in rural Mt. Pleasant, IA. Arrangements are with Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home. Expressions of sympathy may be expressed to the family through www.mauerjohnsonfh.com.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to: Wet-Nose Animal Rescue, Plymouth County Historical Museum, and Second Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant, IA.
Judy Logan was born April 2, 1952, to Dorothy L. (Boyd) and William L. Logan in Mt. Pleasant, IA. She grew up on the farm of her grandparents, Howard and Merle Burkey, near Mt. Pleasant. At the age of 7, she moved to Mt. Pleasant with her mother, stepfather, and sister, and graduated as class valedictorian from Mt. Pleasant High School in 1970.
She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin and English from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, where she was editor of the weekly newspaper for three semesters. During her Cornell years, she studied for one semester in Italy, and graduated magna cum laude in 1974. Her summer employment during college was as a reporter/photographer at the Mt. Pleasant News.
She married Daniel C. Bowman on June 1, 1974. They later divorced, while remaining friends until his death in 2009.
Judy attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she obtained her Master of Arts degree in Journalism in 1979. She was employed as news editor of the Ida County Pioneer Record in Ida Grove, IA, from 1975 to 1995. In 1992, she participated in a journalistic study program to Russia, and in 1993, she led Ida County in a fund-raising effort to bring a Russian editor to Ida County. During those years she also received a number of awards from the Ida County Pork Producers and the Ida County Beef Producers.
In 1992, she self-published a book, One Week at a Time in the Life of a Country News Hound, about newspapering in small-town Iowa. She was advisor to the Ida Grove High School newspaper for nine years. After working one summer at the Holstein Advance, Bowman moved to Le Mars, serving as a reporter/feature editor at the Le Mars Daily Sentinel from 1995 to 1998. She worked for a total of 25 years in newspaper journalism.
Bowman became the administrator at the Plymouth County Historical Museum in Le Mars, serving 25 years from Nov. 1, 1998, to Dec. 31, 2023, when she retired. While at the Museum, one of her greatest loves was to pull her dog in a little red wagon that promoted the Museum as a “Doggone Great Museum.”
While at the Museum, she also was employed part-time as an adjunct instructor in English and Communications at Northwest Iowa Community College, Sheldon; Dordt College, Sioux Center; Western Iowa Tech Community College, Sioux City; and Wayne State College, Wayne, NE. However, her favorite subject to teach was dog obedience classes in Le Mars.
In 2020, Judy completed her Master of Arts degree in Education at Wayne State, with an Emphasis on Teaching English.
An animal lover her entire life, Judy helped start Wet-Nose Animal Rescue in 2019 at Le Mars and helped finance the opening of the shelter in 2022. She also kept her own cats, dogs, and horses at her Dalton ghost town acreage. At the time of her death, she was caring for 15 animals. She also was publishing the courthouse newsletter, The Messenger, with her weekly columns about life “Down at Dalton,” focusing on her life with animals. She was planning to self-publish the columns in book form by July 15, 2025.
Judy returned to her academic love, Latin, by enrolling in classes at the University of South Dakota under the direction of Dr. Lisa Millen.
When Judy arrived in Le Mars, she joined the historic St. George’s Episcopal Church where dogs were allowed to attend the worship services in the tradition of the English, who founded the church. After St. George’s became inactive, Judy attended St. Peter Lutheran Church in Brunsville. At the time of her passing, she was worshipping at United Methodist Church of Merrill. She also had worshipped at Adaville Methodist of Adaville and at Living Faith Lutheran, Le Mars. In recent years, she attended St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Remsen with her friend Judy Stokesberry. In September 2024, after retirement she achieved a major item on her bucket list, organizing the “Burkey Bash,” a reunion of her extended Burkey family after 60 years of little to no contact.
Survivors include two nieces: Belinda DeWitt of Mt. Pleasant and Teresa Johnson of Solon; brother-in-law, William Martin of New London; great niece, Chandler DeWitt; three great nephews: Eli DeWitt, Hunter Johnson, and Keegan Johnson; one grand-nephew, Trice DeWitt; one grand-niece, Blakely DeWitt; friend/editor, Judy Stokesberry of Remsen; mentor, Dr. Katherine Butler of Wayne, NE; and animal friends,: Dr. Marilyn Lowe of Ute, Angel Anderson, Mary Valentine, Margaret Henrich, and Dena Plendl all of Le Mars, Charlotte Hebert of Westfield, Brenda Groon of Akron, and Wet-Nose friends. Many beloved dogs, cats, and horses also survive.
Judy was preceded in death by her parents; her stepfather, Ed Boyd; her sisters, Janet (Logan) Martin and Nancy Logan; her step-grandmother, Blanche Boyd; her aunt, Aileen Albert; her mentor, Glada Koerselman; and many beloved animals.