CRESTVIEW — Loved ones are mourning the loss of a former Crestview councilwoman, real estate agent and Shalimar’s first female mayor.
Kathleen Bowman — who died Nov. 24 at 88 years old — served on the Crestview City Council from 1999 to 2003, and was named council president in 2002.
She ran for mayor in 2003, but George Whitehurst won the election. She ran again for city council, unsuccessfully, in 2005.
While politically active, Bowman was renowned for standing up for her beliefs.
In December 2002, following voters’ approval in a referendum, she led an effort to display historic documents — including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Ten Commandments — in city hall. The Ten Commandments effort drew the ire of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
The same year, Bowman joined a unanimous council vote to keep the rebel battle flag flying over the Confederate veterans memorial, which led to the NAACP's threat of an economic boycott.
Former city councilwoman Linda Parker, who served with Bowman, said she "was steadfast with her convictions. She was a fighter. She tried to see things through to the end.”
Bowman and Parker — who joined Brenda Bush, Sam Hayes and Bill Kilpatrick on the City Council — "were on the first woman-majority council,” Parker said.
"We stayed really busy then," she said, noting Bowman helped implement facilities and services residents enjoy today, including constructing the Crestview Public Library, the Crestview Community Center and Children’s Park in Twin Hills Park.
“She loved Crestview and was always trying to do things to improve Crestview and do things that were best for the community,” Parker said.
Bowman and her late husband, Fred, opened Fred Bowman Realty in Crestview in 1968 after Fred retired from a military career that took the family to Germany in the 1950s. Kathleen Bowman remained active in the business until her reluctant retirement at the end of 2013.
Before moving to Crestview in the 1990s, Bowman served as a Shalimar city councilwoman in the early 1970s, mayor in the late 1970s, and street and road commissioner in the 1980s.
Until she died, Bowman was under Emerald Coast Hospice's care.
Family visitation is between 2 and 4 p.m. today, Nov. 27, with her funeral at 4 p.m. at Crosspoint United Methodist Church, 2250 P.J. Adams Parkway.
She will be buried in a private ceremony at Barrancas National Cemetery at Naval Air Station Pensacola on Monday.
“She’s definitely going to be missed,” Parker said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Funeral scheduled for former Crestview councilwoman, Shalimar mayor