Owings-Bogley, Mary Ruth

29 Apr Owings-Bogley, Mary Ruth

Mary Ruth Owings-Bogley, formerly of Etchison, MD passed away on January 18, 2017. Daughter of the late Thomas Owings, Sr. and Elizabeth Royer Owings. Wife of the late William R. Bogley. Mother of the late Thomas Winkler. Survived by three step-children, Roger Thomas Bogley (Jeri) of Washington, Allan Lewis Bogley (Brenda) of Pennsylvania, and Robert Craig Bogley (Linda) of Virginia. Also survived by two nieces, Suzanne and Jeanne Lowry, one nephew, Brian Lowry, one grand niece, Sarah Elizabeth Lowry, and one grand-nephew, Christopher Brian Lowry. Predeceased by three sisters, Ardean L. Owings, Hazel Lowry, and Maude O. Owings, as well as three brothers, Gillis C. Owings, Dorsey Samuel Owings and Thomas Owings, Jr.

Mary was born on a farm near Laytonsville and lived in the area all of her life. She aspired to be a nurse, but after graduating from Gaithersburg High School she was a year too young to enroll in nursing school. For a year she attended Western Maryland College and studied biology and chemistry before being accepted into Union Memorial Hospital nurses’ training.

After graduation, her nursing dream was put on hold when she married and had a son, Tom. When this marriage dissolved, she and Tom moved back to the farm. She was then finally was able to begin practicing nursing in 1952 at Montgomery General Hospital, working the 3 to 11 PM shift, so she could spend more time with her son.

In 1957, Mary was made Labor and Delivery Supervisor in the hospital’s new addition. During her stay at Montgomery General , she learned Emergency Room response, bedside nursing, medication, labor progress, intravenous therapy, and how to actually deliver a baby when the patient arrived “ready to get the baby here. “

In 1975, Mary left Montgomery General as she felt “too old to tolerate husbands in the labor and delivery room.”
Mary then went to Asbury Methodist Village where she worked in long-term care, going from “one end of life to the other. “At Asbury, she worked as staff nurse, charge nurse, and night supervisor. Her years of spending time with residents and comforting them in their final hours were most rewarding.

After taking care of family members after her retirement, she decided to move to Friends House where someone could take care of her; but, she did not stop serving others. She was a wing monitor for several years and made sure everyone was OK, responding to emergency vehicles when necessary, and making sure Phillip (a wing resident) took his medicine. Mary enjoyed reading, jigsaw puzzles, working in the Elephant Shop, watching Jeopardy and the Orioles and Nationals baseball on TV.

Not only was Mary a servant of God, but a servant of man. She will be greatly missed, but greatly rejoiced over in heaven.