home

If you attended events or parades in Oriental in the past twenty years, you likely saw Carol Ann Cowden’s handiwork.

She sewed costumes for the All-Girl Fish Band at the Croakerfest. There were also the outfits she coordinated for herself, her husband Bob and their schipperke, Fang, as they walked the distance in recent Spirit of Christmas parades, even after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Carol Ann Cowden

Early Thursday morning, February 7th, Carol Cowden passed away at her home. Bob and her daughter and two sons were with her.

“She had a wonderful, uplifting way,” said longtime friend Maureen Bivona. “She walked in to a room and the whole room lit up.”

Carol Ann and Bob Cowden

Bivona and about two dozen of Carol’s other friends gathered in her honor both a few days before her passing, and a few days after. It was the thing to do, they said, because for Carol, the party was the thing.

“She always wanted to make a party an event,” said Maureen Bivona. Costumes figured greatly. There were, her family says, incredibly creative costumes at Halloween — friends remember one where her husband Bob was a buxom nurse. And when she and friends gathered to watch the Academy Awards, Carol saw to it that she and her friends came in costume, inspired by either a movie or a movie star, or celebrity scandal. In a recent year, Carol arrived as Angelina Jolie.

Carol Ann Cowden with friends and two sisters at a gathering last summer.

Carol Cowden was born in California, and lived there most of her life, going to college (her major was home economics), marrying and raising a daughter and two sons in Laguna. She did a lot of costuming there, for her children and for the Laguna Youth Repertory. She worked in a gift store, making sachets and gift baskets, one of which was sent to Princess Diana for her wedding.

About twenty years ago, Carol and her first husband traveled across the country in an RV they dubbed, “The Beast”.

One day, they stopped in Oriental and while eating at Brantley’s, they met Fay and John Bond who invited them to their home. They decided to settle here. Maureen Bivona who became a neighbor and longtime friend,says Carol wanted to live in Oriental because it was “something less pretentious and more grounded.”

Carol Ann and Bob Cowden

After a divorce, she went on a blind date with Bob Cowden. They married, and as she had done in California she put her attention to detail — whether it was in costuming, or preparing party favors, or parade ensembles. Maureen Bivona recalls Carol practicing for Croakerfest baking contests, 2-3 weeks ahead of time. “Carol was better,” she says, “than Martha Stewart ever will be.”

Another friend, CJ Locarro remembers, “She was an old school hostess, and had to have everything just right.” But not so much so that she wouldn’t add ice to her red wine. “She would say, ‘I know it’s tacky, but that’s how I like it.’”

Away from the limelight of the parties, there are other stories. Of Carol, on moving here, approaching a nursing home and asking for “the patient who no one visits.” She took that patient on, and visited regularly.

Carol Cowden had battled cancer for several years. She is survived by her husband Bob, her daughter Heather Fergerson and sons Cameron and Stuart Fraser, five grandchildren, three step-children and her parents.

Carol Ann Cowden at her birthday party February 8, 2007

She passed away a day before her birthday.

The upcoming Relay for Life in May in Bayboro will likely feature a group of Carol’s friends walking in her memory.

Posted Tuesday February 12, 2008 by Melinda Penkava