Veteran radio and sports announcer Lee Mowry, Jr. of Turner Church Road in Rome died at his home on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at the age of 86.
Lee predates his wife, Edith, who died in July 2001. He leaves three children, son Lee Mowry III, and wife Jo Anne of Roanoke, Virginia. and 2 daughters, Marsha Whatley and husband, David of Rome and Harriet Owens and Martin Ball of Rome. He also survives five grandchildren, Robin Holley of Canton, Ga.; J.J. Owens of Roman; Darren Murray of Potomac Falls, Va.; De Whitley. and Amanda Ammons of Canton, Georgia. and seven great-grandchildren. He is also survived by two nephews, Bill and Leland Greeley of South Carolina, and a sister-in-law, Mary Baker of Rome.
Lee was born in Isabella, Tennessee. Son of the late Leland B. and Margaret Mowry, near Copperhill, Tennessee, March 30, 1921. He moved to Rome early on when his father worked for the Celanese Corporation.
After the war, Lee returned to Rome and was hired as a junior journalist for the Floyd County Herald newspaper, where he covered local sports. In 1947, he was asked to broadcast a Textile League baseball game and thus he began his career in radio and sports. For more than 40 years, he was the voice of sports in the Rome area, broadcasting everything from Little League baseball, the Pony League, and the Colt League, to high school football, college basketball, and professional golf.
Over the years, he has personally interviewed hundreds of sports figures, including some of the greatest of all time, such as Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Al Kaline, Red Grange and Dizzy Dean. He was a member and first broadcaster inductee into the Rome and Floyd Sports Hall of Fame, a communicant of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, and a member of the Marine Corps League, Detachment Jake Puryear. He, too, could be heard on the radio in the morning for years hosting the Grab Bag show.
