Karen on mon 7 apr 03
Saturday, April 5th, 2003 Melvin Lee Owens moved on to heaven. For those
of you who are unaware just who ML Owens is..... He is one of the great
potters from a family steeped in North Carolina traditional pottery. It is
his family which was in part involved in the resurgence of Pottery as an
"industry" in this fine state. He was honored by The North Carolina Arts
Council with the Folk Heritage Award in 2000. His work resides in The
North Carolina Museum of History (and likely in the Smithsonian as
well....) He is known as the "patriarch of potters" in the Seagrove, NC
region. Melvin Owens has influenced many a North Carolina potter. He and
his wife Pearl Marie Garner (now deceased) had eight children. All but one
of his surviving children work in pottery in some capacity, as do many of
his grandchildren.... His children are as follows (as close to birth order
as I can remember....)
Bobby Owens
Hilda Owens Peterson
Vernon Owens
Lula Owens Bolick
Viola Owens Brady (now deceased)
Ina Owens Bolick
Boyd Owens
Nancy Owens Bowen
The receiving hours will be Monday April 7, at Kennedy Funeral Home,
Robbins NC from 6:30-9:00 PM. The funeral will be held on April 8 at 11:00
AM at Needham's Grove Church, Westmoore Community. The family was also
seeing people on Sunday at Melvin's home.
As a friend of the family's I wanted to let the clayworld know about
Melvin. They are a close knit family & some of the finest people one could
ever meet. They are kind & generous & so very willing to share their love
of clay with those who have the same love. As is so often the case family
glazes and firing techniques are frequently kept just to the family. But
the generous knowledge, history & tradition this family shares is a
blessing to all who know them. They have probably had the most profound
influence on me as a turner. I am honored to call them my friends and to be
one of their's. I am blessed by each one of them. I was privileged to be
able to attend the award ceremony for Melvin L. Owens & was delighted to
see him honored. It honors his family who I consider a part of mine.
And for anyone who has ever seen the poster by the NC Dept of Tourism &
Travel, with the potter surrounded by his work, that is Melvin Lee Owens in
the picture & his work. You can see a copy of the picture on the following
site: http://www.discoverseagrove.com/
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There is an excellant article in the Asheboro, NC Courier-Tribune today
(Monday April 7th, 2003) The link is http://www.courier-tribune.com/
I've copied it below for archival purposes.....
There is a older picture of him turning on the newpaper's site....
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Owens, shaper of pottery tradition, dies at age 85
By Kathi Keys
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
SEAGROVE - The patriarch of Seagrove area potters - M.L. Owens - left a
lasting imprint.
He made an impression on his children, seven of the eight becoming
fifth-generation potters - and on his grandchildren as well as others who
learned the art of shaping clay into functional and decorative items.
And he left the world pottery which many families consider their heirlooms.
"Daddy was America's senior potter," said son Boyd Owens.
Melvin Lee Owens died Saturday at the age of 85.
He retired from pottery due to medical reasons two years ago after more
than seven and a half decades at the potter's wheel.
In 2000, Owens received the N.C. Folk Heritage Award from the N.C. Arts
Council for his achievements and contributions to the craft traditions of
the state. He was recognized for his generosity to other potters and for
his talent.
In his early days, Owens produced functional and traditional pottery
pieces. But, he became innovative, becoming one of the first to create art
pottery and use colors in his craft.
He developed his own forms and became known for his classic teapots,
tall and graceful with spouts that flowed like a swan's neck, and his
Rebecca pitchers, some as tall as four feet, and his face jugs.
Owens made wood-fired salt glaze from the time he opened his shop in
1938 through the 1980s. He developed earthenware glazes, in green, blue,
yellow, brown and red, firing these first with wood and then in 1962 built
and fired them with an oil kiln.
His children are carrying on the pottery tradition.
"He was the very best at what he did," said youngest son Boyd Owens who
now owns and operates the Original Owens Pottery on Busbee Road, off N.C.
705, east of Seagrove. Youngest sister, Nancy Owens Brewer, also works there.
Around the corner is Jugtown Pottery which brother Vernon now owns and
where oldest brother Bobby works. Another sister, Viola Owens Brady, was a
potter there for years until her death in 1989.
Two sisters, Lula and Ina Bolick, have married pottery brothers and are
potters in the Blowing Rock area.
Only the oldest sister, Hilda Owens Peterson, who lives in Durham, is
not an active potter, but she's close to retirement and family members
expect her to return to the area and maybe help out her siblings.
"We learned a lot from him, especially work ethics," Boyd Owens
recalled. "It was a cardinal sin to sit down while we worked. And we've
never had serious back problems."
He said his father devoted his entire life to being a potter, providing
for his wife and eight kids even in financially hard years. "It was like
farming to us. ... He worked through world wars, a lot of depressions and
several recessions."
M.L. Owens traced his heritage in the business back four generations.
He was born in 1917 to James Henry and Martha Scott Owens. His father made
pots for his own pottery, J.H. Owens Pottery, and for Jugtown Pottery. His
mother hand-modeled chickens from clay that were also sold at Jugtown Pottery.
His father died when he was 5, so M.L. Owens grew up learning to make
pottery from his brothers, Walter and Jonah, at North State Pottery, where
he worked in the 1930s.
He opened his own shop in 1938, on the site of the J.H. Owens Pottery.
There he made and fired the pots while his wife, Marie Garner Owens, glazed
them. They were together for 50 years.
Working for years on a treadle kick wheel, he built electric wheels
starting in the early 1950s, first for himself and then for several potters
in the community, He also built kilns for many area potters from the 1940s
through the 1970s.
He was featured potter at the Fifth Annual Seagrove Pottery Festival
held in 1986.
When son Vernon was featured potter at the ninth festival, he said that
he learned the pottery trade from his father - "the best teacher in the
business. ... My daddy's the only man that I ever learned anything from.
He's one of the best. I've always considered him the best. It just came
natural. He was very critical. He didn't cut any slack."
On Sunday, Boyd Owens said that brother Vernon will probably now be
called the patriarch of Seagrove area potters. "He's been a potter for well
over 50 years, 45 years at Jugtown."
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The following are the obituaries from the Asheboro, NC Courier-Tribune:
>From the Asheboro, NC Courier-Tribune, Sunday, April 6th, 2003
http://www.courier-tribune.com/obits03/040603.html
Melvin L. Owens
SEAGROVE - Melvin Lee Owens, 88, a master potter, of Busbee
Road, died Saturday, April 5, 2003, at FirstHealth Moore Regional
Hospital, Pinehurst.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Kennedy Funeral Home,
Robbins.
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>From Asheboro, NC Courier-Tribune, Monday, April 7th, 2003
http://www.courier-tribune.com/obits03/040703.html
Melvin L. Owens
SEAGROVE - Melvin Lee Owens, 85, of 3756 Busbee Road, died
Saturday, April 5, 2003, at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital,
Pinehurst.
Funeral service will be 11 a.m. Tuesday at Needham Grove Baptist
Church, with the Rev. James E. Cockram and the Rev. Brent Bolick
officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
He was a native of Moore County and the widower of Marie Garner
Owens. He was a retired Master Potter, former pottery shop owner and a
former builder of electric potter wheels and kilns for himself and area
potters. He received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 2000.
Surviving are sons, Bobby Owens, Vernon Owens, Boyd Owens;
daughters, Hilda O. Peterson of Durham, Lula O. Bolick, Ina O. Bolick,
both of Blowing Rock, Nancy O. Brewer; 14 grandchildren; 15
great-grandchildren.
The family will be at Kennedy Funeral Home, Robbins, 6:30-9 p.m.
Monday, other times at the home.
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