Gladys Kleinwort Bowles

St. Ansgar, Iowa - Gladys Kleinwort Bowles was born on August 23, 1917, on the farm home of Sherwin A. Kleinwort and Irma Lubiens Kleinwort. Gladys died on November 27, 2009, at the Good Samaritan Center in St. Ansgar, Iowa. She was very definite about her last wishes.
Gladys graduated from St. Ansgar High School in 1935. After high school, she attended Hamilton Business School in Mason City graduating in 1938. Gladys continued her education by obtaining a B.S. degree in Sociology and Demography from the University of Wisconsin. Further graduate work was done at the University of Maryland and the American University in Washington, D.C.
Gladys spent 40 years working for the U.S. Federal Government. Her first year was with the U.S. Census Bureau and 39 additional years at the U.S Department of Agriculture. Her career started as a clerk typist and she rose to a title of a professional demographer.
During her career, she wrote and published many papers, articles and huge tomes of statistics on net migration of the U.S. population during the years of 1950 to 1960 and again from 1960 to 1970.
The net migration study was one of her biggest accomplishments in which she documented the movement of the population by age, race and sex for every county and major division of all states. Gladys was mentored for this study by Drs. Margaret Jarman Hagood, Carl C. Taylor, Conrad Taeuber, and Calvin Beale. At one point, she was in charge of all farm/labor studies for the entire Department of Agriculture.
As head of the Labor Force Research efforts in the department, she made extensive visits to observe "crew sign-up" of crews working from the South to the far North of the United States where Blacks, Mexicans and other foreign workers helped United States farmers harvest many different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Several publications of the activities of hired farm workers resulted from this research.
As she worked for the Department of Agriculture, Gladys received a number of awards and accolades and was active in a number of professional demographic and sociology organizations. She served as Vice President of the Population Association of America and President of the Southern Demographic Association.
Gladys spent about twenty years of her career living in Washington, D.C. and the remaining years doing research until 1980 for the USDA at the University of Georgia. She retired in Athens, Ga., and spent her retirement years there. During her retirement years, she operated her own research office called Bowles Demographic Research. Her research projects were done for the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the University of Texas and the University of Miami in Florida.
Gladys was married to Charles T. Bowles from 1942-1950. After her divorce, she had a longtime collegial and companionship relationship with her very best friend, Calvin L. Beale. Mr. Beale preceded her in death on September 2, 2008. There are no direct survivors; however, she is survived by sixteen nieces and nephews and their spouses and their numerous progeny (Sharon Fossey Justice, Kenneth Fossey, Keith Fossey, Karen Fossey Hakes, Dennis Fossey, Richard Fossey, Kathy Fossey Gainey, Michael Fossey, Virginia Tesch Boerjan, Roberta Tesch Califf, Vivian Tesch Lampe, Don Tesch, Edward Kleinwort, Joan Kleinwort Haack, James Kleinwort and Steven Kleinwort).
Gladys traveled extensively in the United States in connection with her work in the department and made several trips to Europe. One time she represented the United States in an OECD Population conference in Paris. One of the most exciting trips included looking into the crater of Vesuvius near Pompeii, which was rapidly being excavated at that time.
She made many trips to Iowa to attend family Thanksgiving gatherings and was in attendance for many nieces and nephews weddings as well as the grand nieces and nephews. Her family could always count on being remembered by a card and phone call on their birthday, anniversary and all special holidays. Georgia pecans were a continuous and cherished gift at Christmas time.
In addition to her family, Gladys will be fondly remembered by her many friends that lived on Milledge Heights and other locations in Athens, Ga. Several families in Athens considered her a part of their families, including the McDonalds, the Lewises, the Oertels, the Lees and Deborah Henderson and John Lee.
Beyond family and friends, her interests were music (particularly grand opera), art and her beloved pets. Gladys was a great lover of small animals. Many were strays which shared her home for long periods of time. Her last pet, Kay, a toy poodle, is being cared for in her absence from Athens, Ga., with the Skees family.
Gladys was cremated and will be inurned in the family plot in the cemetery near Carpenter, Iowa.
Schroeder & Sites Funeral Home, St. Ansgar, is in charge of arrangements. (641) 713-4920.