Queen Anne Smith

Here is a Bowen branch on my family tree: Bowens.

Take a look and you will see my great grandmother Annie Smith. She was actually named Queen Anne Smith. As she was born in 1867, her name may very well have to do with the following (from Wikipedia):

"Although Anne and her reign have no direct bearing on the style personally, at the time Queen Anne architecture style became popular in the late 1800s, her name connoted a sense of Old World elegance and extravagant, ornate details."

According to the family, Annie and her husband William Rich Bowen (maybe his parents were showing optimism naming him) were both prone to a certain laziness and mooching life style. Apparently they tended to move in with a child and remain until their welcome was worn out and then moved on to another.

The couple moved from Tennessee to Durham, NC to live with Rawls Coston and Myrtle, my grand parents. It is said that Annie was known to drink. Annie died in Durham and is buried there. After her death, William eventually returned to Fayetteville, Tennessee where he lived for some time with a daughter and her husband, and after that went to another son in Toledo, Ohio, where he eventually died in 1931 and is buried.