Emma Sue Cowden Hightower

EMMA SUE COWDEN HIGHTOWER, 72, passed away on March 21, 2004. She was born in El Paso, Texas on June 18, 1931, and spent her early childhood years on a ranch near Midland. She attended the University of Texas at Austin, and married H. Wayne Hightower in 1951. Emma Sue and Wayne lived in Tyler, Midland, and New Orleans before moving to Houston in 1957. She was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, The Junior League of Houston, the River Oaks Garden Club, the American Quarter Horse Association, and AWARE ( Auxiliary to the Alzheimer's Association) and the Houston Country Club. Her Family honored her by establishing the Emma Sue Hightower Professorship in the Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, at the University of Texas - Houston Health Science Center. She was predeceased by her father Allen Cowden, and is survived by her mother, Olive Carolyn Vick Cowden; her husband, H. Wayne Hightower; her daughter, Martha Hightower Griffith, and her husband, Kenneth Richard Griffith; her son H. Wayne ("Buddy") Hightower, and his wife Alisa Turley Hightower; her beloved grandchildren, Carolyn Virginia Griffith, Robert Hightower Griffith, and H. Wayne ("Trey") Hightower III; her brother, James Coley Cowden, and his wife Jeannie Tunstill Cowden; her brother-in-law, Maxwell Lee Hightower; and numerous other relatives. Friends are invited to visitation with the family on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 from four until six o'clock in the evening in the Library of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive. Following a private graveside service at Memorial Oaks Cemetery, a memorial service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at one o'clock in the afternoon in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church Church, 5300 Main Street in Houston, with Dr. John Wm. Lancaster and Rev. Asa Hunt officiating. A reception at the church will follow the service In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the River Oaks Garden Club's Bayou Bend Gardens Endowment, P.O. Box 6826, Houston, TX 77265-6826, or to the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center at Houston, 7000 Fannin Suite 1200. Houston, TX 77030.