Eunice I. Owens

Eunice Irene Owens, age 91, was called home to heaven to be with her Savior, Jesus Christ, on September 11, 2024, at Oak Terrace Assisted Living in North Mankato. 

Memorial Service 11:30 a.m., September 30, 2024, at St. Paul’s Ev. Lutheran Church, North Mankato. Visitation will be one hour before service. Family interment will be in Garden City Cemetery. Mankato Mortuary is in charge of arrangements. 

Eunice was born August 24, 1933, in White River, South Dakota, the second of nine children of the Rev. Herbert and Emma (Roeder) Hackbarth. She was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church, Mission, South Dakota, and confirmed in her Christian faith at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Stanton, Nebraska. She graduated from Michigan Lutheran Seminary (high school), Saginaw, Michigan, in 1951 and took her secretarial training at Mankato Commercial College where she began work as the school’s office secretary in November of 1952, continuing in this position until April of 1957. 

On June 3, 1956, Eunice married Milton Owens at her parents’ home in Echo, Minnesota. They shared 52 years of marriage. This union was blessed with three children. After the children had grown, she returned to office work, including 10 years as secretary at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, North Mankato, and 13 years as a part-time receptionist at the Mankato Civic Center.

Eunice was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, North Mankato, where she had been the Sunday School secretary and also a member of the Altar Guild and choir. 

Eunice is survived by daughter and son-in-law Deb and Dave Walz (St. Augusta, MN), daughter and son-in-law Gwen and Torey Statlander (Owatonna, MN), and son and daughter-in-law Joel and Shannon Owens (Osceola, IN). Eunice had 7 grandchildren: Alec Walz (Sarah), Allison Walters (Aaron), Megan Ostermann (Ryan), Madeline Kottke (Caleb), Owen Statlander (Taylor), Ella Owens and Emmie Owens. She was also blessed with 11 great grandchildren: Maren, Laina, and Bryn Ostermann; Bauer Walters; Gideon, August, and Emmeline Walz; Paislee and Jameson Kottke; Lyla and Cooper Statlander. Eunice is also survived by these siblings: Art Hackbarth (Judy), Hilbert Hackbarth, Fritz Hackbarth (Rhonda), Lydia Schibbelhut, Grace Anderson, Lois Frieling (Wouter), and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by several family members: her husband, Milton, in 2008; her parents; sisters, Charlotte Hackbarth and Rachel Seebach; brothers-in-law John Schibbelhut and Carl Seebach; Milton’s brothers and sisters-in-law, Phil and Maisie Owens and Hugh and Joan Owens.

While all of the above facts are accurate (and mostly written by Eunice), they do not begin to describe who Eunice was. Eunice was a busy and faithful volunteer for nearly all of her life, and she was a generous supporter of Lutheran schools and the Echo Food Shelf. She was her husband Milton’s right hand in everything he did, from raising the family to helping him with elections while he was Blue Earth County Auditor. Eunice was a talented seamstress who could sew anything she put her mind to, and she had fearless do-it-yourself abilities. Music and singing delighted her. Most importantly, she was a faithful Christian who taught her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to know and love Jesus. Her greatest desire was that they join her in heaven someday. That is her most enduring legacy.

The family wishes to express thanks to all who supported Eunice in her later years: family, neighbors, friends, fellow Christians, and the staff at Oak Terrace Assisted Living and Mayo Clinic Hospice. Memorials may be made to Risen Savior Lutheran School and Echo Food Shelf.