The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 20

6B Tht SUNDAY Ttmes FEBRUARY 1. 1987 Together for more than 60 years, then iimiiLiuu-iNiliii 1 11 18" Gas Logs 24" 30" 36" A ISB MSB Husband vanished without a trace SUSAN THOMAS Staff Writer George and Alene Owens had been together since they were teen-agers, learning about one another as only a man and wife of more than 60 years can. They knew what made each other happy and sad. They knew, without words, what the other thought about this subject or that And more than anything else, they thought they would be together "until the Lord took one of us away." But that is not the way it happened. On July 21, 1985, George Owens, then 79, vanished.

And Alene, who spent her recent 79th birthday alone, is still waiting for him to come home. "I don't miss a day thinking about him," she said. "I can't keep from thinking about where he could be, what could have happened to him and wondering why I can't see him no more. "After being together all that time, I can't get used to losing him, least not the way I lost him." The disappearance of Owens, a retired Nashville preacher and custodian, is laced with mystery, leaving behind no easy answers for his wife, his friends or police. Today, a year and a half after he was last seen, it is as if Owens simply stepped off the edge of the Earth, without a whisper of how or why.

"It's been so long, I just don't know anymore," his wife said softly. "We had talked about death. We had planned our funerals, down to the songs to sing. Installation Service Financing Prices do not include Installation IBlilil Jiili A George Owens 'Well. I'll meet you" "But this way is, well, so hard to understand.

Sometimes, I wish I just had his body here so I wouldn't have to wonder anymore." Alene now spends her days searching her mind for any clue about her husband's whereabouts, reliving those last days in the summer of 1985, again and again. And her search always begins with the last time she heard her husband's voice, which was about 3 p.m. that Sunday afternoon of July 21, when she called him from Ohio where she had been visiting relatives for five days. "He was laughing and teasing me over the phone," she said. "I asked him if he was going to pick me up at Nashville Gas kJ) Home Energy Center Your Partner for Gas Appliances and More.

HH Church Si. 8:10 a.m.-5:to p.m. flume: 252-1660 S.miriL.y: 9:00 a.m. p.m. CaDieSheV Staff The mystery of her husband's disappearance continues to haunt Alene Owens, 79, a year and a half after she last saw him.

I Li I I f5 jf4 Ft' 1 a 4' the bus station the next morning, and he laughed and said, 'Well, I'll meet you if I don't That same afternoon, as Alene boarded the bus in Cleveland, Owens was seen by friends who live near the Owenses' red brick home on Sunset Road in Nolensville in northern Williamson County. He was driving his dark green 1972 Dodge Dart north towards Nashville on Nolensville Road, so his friends presumed he was heading to town to pick up his wife a day early. But at 6 am the next morning, July 22, when Alene stepped off the Greyhound bus at the downtown station after her night-long journey, Owens wasn't there. "I waited and waited," she said, "but after a good hour or more, I called his brother and told him my husband must have overslept after all and asked him to give me a ride home." About the same time Alene got inside her brother-in-law's car for the ride to Nolensville, Owens was seen about 60 miles away in Maury County. "It was pretty early, about 9 or 10 o'clock when he drove in with a flat tire," said Larry Potts, owner of Potts Garage in the small community of Santa Fe.

"He acted a little confused at first, like he didn't know what he wanted, but then he told me he wanted to buy a new tire. He just kind of walked around with his cane while I put the tire on." Potts said about 30 minutes later when the car was ready to go, Owens took out his wallet, counted out in cash the correct amount for the $60 tire and left "He turned north on Highway 7, heading toward Williamson County," Potts said. "He was real nice. He didn't seem disoriented when he left, so I didn't think any more about it then." About 11 a.m, Alene unlocked the garage door of the house In Nolensville where she and her husband had lived since Owens retired as a custodian for Nashville Products Co. in the late 1960s.

"When I saw that his car wasn't there, I got this funny feeling." she said. "I had thought he'd still be in the bed sleeping." The odd sensation grew stronger as she walked through their two-bedroom home. The Sunday dinnerware was still in place on the dining room table. Owens' new black hat, which he had worn every day since Alene had bought it for his birthday the month before, was hanging in its place. Only one set of clothes, an old black suit that Owens kept to wear around the house, was missing.

And their dog Ring, whom Owens had stayed home to care for while bis wife went to Ohio, was wagging his tail waiting to be fed "When he never came home that night, I knew something was wrong." Alene said. The following few days now blur together In Alene's mind. The police were called The nearby woods were searched News reporters were called Missing person fliers were printed A $1,000 reward for Information about Owens was posted And then Alene waited "We finally got one of the television stations to show his picture," she said The man from Santa Fe called first, telling us about the tire, and then the next Saturday, we got the call from Perry County." Owens' car had been found. It was parked at the top of a high ridge overlooking the Tennessee River near the small town of Lobelville. "I don't see how a car ever got up there," said Perry County Sheriffs Deputy Joe Bell.

"The road if you even call it that, is real rocky and rough. "But the car was sitting there at the end of the road at the very top of the hill." The unusual location matched the condition of the car that Owens had kept, like new, for 13 years. Stacks of dry wood piled ready to light as campfires, circled the car. The keys were still in the Ignition. The driver's window was down, allowing recent rains to soak the A pack of matches lay on the dusli, though Owens had long ago quit smoking.

And in the back seat, on top of several more sticks of wood, was Owens' black suit jacket and his walking cane. "Nothing was right," said Alene, who was taken up the hill in a jeep. "No sir, he couldn't have driven that car up there, and he would never have put wood on that seat And where could he have gone without his cane?" For two weeks, local search teams scoured the isolated hillside and nearby riverbanks but found nothing and in the weeks and months that have passed no other clues about Owens' whereabouts have ever been found "I stayed at the house for almost a year because I kept thinking he might come walking up one day," Alene, said "For a while, I thought if somebody had him, they might turn him loose, and then later I thought that if somebody had killed him, they might bring his body back and hide it in the woods beside the house. "I was up at the window, day and night until I got so nervous that I couldn't half sleep and my people were afraid for me staying there alone. I finally decided I better leave." Alene moved into Wedgewood Towers on 1 2th Avenue South in Nashville last June.

That is where she now spends her days wondering why her husband disappeared and sometimes letting her thoughts drift back to memories of other days when she and her husband were still together. "We did have good times," she said "Oh, we'd fuss and fight but the arguments never lasted long "We never did have children of our own, I guess because the Lord just didn't have one to give us, but that was all right We stayed busy visiting sick people from the churches wherever he was preaching or working in the garden together until we got so tired we had to go to bed right after supper. "I called him 'Hone and he called me 'At' and you should have heard the way he used to tease me all the timeT Even the last day she saw him. when they were getting ready to go to the bus station where she would leave for Ohio, he was "teasing me so bad" Alene recalled "He said 'Where's my cane? And when I told him I didn't know, he said 'You've done hid it' she added almost smiling. "I said 'No, I haven't What would I need with an old man's cane? "And you know, we went back and forth like that until he finally started laughing.

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