In death, Denise Owen of Olney saves a life

The family of Denise Owen of Olney is mourning her sudden loss this week but also taking comfort in the fact that her untimely passing saved the life of another person – echoing a spirit of service that characterized her life, her sister Tammy Messimer said.

Mrs. Owen died on June 1 of complications of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at United Regional Hospital in Wichita Falls, after she was taken to Olney Hamilton Hospital with breathing difficulties, Mrs. Messimer said.

“She had asthma and was a smoker and her lungs just were not strong enough and she stopped breathing Sunday night,” she said. “Olney Hospital kept her alive and got her to Wichita Falls so they could put her on a breathing machine. They kept her alive so she could save someone’s life.”

As her family kept vigil, a hospital official asked if they would donate her organs.

“She had not registered as a donor,” Mrs. Messimer said. “She had offered her kidney to my uncle a few months prior to her death because he had kidney cancer. When the donor team came in and asked if we would consider donating her body to save someone’s life, we looked at each other and said, ‘She offered her body when she was alive and we knew that that’s what she would want..’” Her liver immediately went to a patient on the transplant list, she said. Although the family has no further information on the person’s identity, they were told that they would one day meet the recipient, she said.

Mrs. Owen, who would have celebrated her 59th birthday on June 6, loved the outdoors - fishing, camping, working in her garden, and playing with her six grandchildren were favorite pursuits, Mrs. Messimer said.

“She would do anything for anybody. She was always looking to help people,” she said. “I’m gonna miss bossing her around.”

Mrs. Owen was born in Bakerfield, Calif., and raised in Megargel, and moved to Olney when she married Kenneth Owen where they raised two children, and she worked as an aide for the elderly and did store resets throughout Texas for an advertising company, her sister said.

She is survived by her husband Kenneth Owen, daughter Cierra Bounds, and son Kenneth “Bud” Owen Jr. and his wife Anisa, mother Joyce Kellar of Megargel, sister Tammy Messimer and husband Bruce of Megargel, sister-in-law Rhonda Vargas and her husband Pete of Olney, mother in law Shirley Owen, brother-in-law Bill Holmes and wife Karrie, Tom Owen and wife Cherri, and sister Heidi Jo Acuna. She is survived by her six grandchildren Joyce Ann Owen, Blaine Owen, Kane Owen, Christopher Bounds, Kayley Bounds, Colton Bounds. She was preceded in death by her niece Tanja Messimer, father Dennis Kellar, her sister Kimberly Canada, and her brother Christopher Wells, sister in law Denna Gonzalez, father-in-law David Owen.

The family invites the public to celebrate Mrs. Owen’s life at a memorial at the Christian Fellowship in Megargel at 11 a.m. on June 15.