Etheen Lowry 1936-2022

by Admin · December 15, 2022

Tribute by Paul Goller – Catholic veteran educator and political activist Etheen Lowry passed away at the age of 86.

Born in 1936, Etheen was six, and her sister Barbara 14, when their mother died of a brain tumour in 1942. Sent to Notre Dame Convent boarding school at age 8, she matriculated at 16 and entered the Johannesburg College of Education at 17 in 1953.

The following year, she met Donovan Lowry, whom she was married in Cape Town at age 21, having graduated with her teaching diploma. They had four children in the seven years up to 1964.

With Donovan she joined the Liberal Party and participated in Black Sash protests. After moving to Johannesburg, their house in Norwood was raided by the Security Police in 1962 and 1964, not the last of such raids, particularly in the 1980s.

Every date mentioned above was crucial to Etheen’s early development and in her later life.

The tragic early loss of her mother sparked her passion for family which always came first in her life. Etheen always attributed her strong Catholic faith, academic prowess and independence of thought to the caring Sisters and ethos of Notre Dame Convent. At the Johannesburg College of Education she became involved in SCS and NCFS , the local and national Catholic student societies which formed the spirituality and social conscience of so many young activists in the1950s.

Her young children soon became the centre of her life. In the words of her daughter Robyn, “she was an incredibly dedicated and supportive mother”. However, this did not stop her completing a BA degree through UNISA in the 1960s.

Etheen began full-time teaching in government schools on her return to South Africa following a temporary two-year exploratory stay in England. This absence, however, merely reinforced her and Donovan’s commitment to radical change back home. First at Hillcrest Primary School and finally at Athlone Girls High School as Head of English. Her long and dedicated teaching career in the public school system will be seen by many as her greatest contribution to South African society.

Politically, involvement in the 1970s in CARE, the mainly lay grouping of Johannesburg Catholic activists had brought exposure to the ideas and experience and friendship of Black Consciousness radicals like Drake Koka and Thomas Manthata. This helped to deepen the social justice formation she had received earlier; later she would become involved in the End Conscription Campaign — and received a banning order from the regime.

As a fellow member of CARE, Sydney Duval remembers Donovan and Etheen as “an inspired and inspiring Catholic couple deeply committed to the cause of social justice during apartheid South Africa”.

Etheen and Donovan led a wide social life, with tennis, bridge, dancing, dinner parties with friends and families. Etheen had earlier played Southern Transvaal Under-21 hockey; Donovan was more into climbing and walking. Clearly it was not all teaching and/or politics. Her deep friendships with Frankie Connell and Jenny Tallack remain among many.

On the health front in later life it was not to be easy going; ranging from severe osteoarthritis to hip (and other) replacements and even rectal cancer removal at 80. All this borne with great fortitude.

She became the undoubted matriarch of her large family, dispersed though it was around the Commonwealth In the late 1990s when daughters Shirley and Jenny’s families decided to leave South Africa. Emigration is always a difficult, sometimes disruptive experience.

Etheen’s daughter Robyn, assisted by her devoted professional carer Christina van Rooyen, bore much of the family burden of seeing her through the grave realities of vascular dementia at the end of an exceptional life. Etheen died on All Saints Day.