Mr. Earnest Lee Owens     Sunrise – April 21, 1945    Sunset – July 30, 2026

Mr. Earnest Lee Owens was born April 21, 1945, in Hernando, Mississippi to Mr. and Mrs. Alquin Owens and to his biological father, Mr. Joseph Easley. As a baby, he moved with his parents from Hernando to Memphis, Tennessee. Earnest attended Kansas Elementary, George Washington Carver High School, Booker T. Washington High School and Shelby State Community College. He was a member of Tree of Life Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Rev. Scott and Rev. Isaiah Brown. From 1966 until 1968 he served in the United States Army as a firefighter at the Fort Lee Military Base in Prince George County Virginia, south of Petersburg.

Earnest was a hard-working industrious man who worked as a supply handler for John Gaston Hospital and as a meat packer at Armour Meat Packing Company before beginning a career as an insurance agent with North Carolina Mutual Insurance and later as a molder for International Harvester. Before retirement, Earnest had a career as a corrections officer at the Mark H. Lutrell Correctional Center. He was also an entrepeneur who owned houses that he rented to tenants.

 Earnest will be dearly missed by his devoted wife of forty-nine years, Margaret, three children, Maryel Jones of Long Beach, California, Earnest T. Draper of Houston, Texas, and Patrick Owens of Memphis, Tennessee, one sister, Doris Owens of Memphis, TN, eleven grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. Earnest especially cherished the camaraderie and longstanding friendships with Charles Garrett of Warren, Michigan and Gerald Foster, Lee Cleveland, Maurice Brown, James Hester, and Marcel Jackson, all of whom are in Memphis.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his biological father, three sisters, Gladys Shane, Eula Holmes, and Rella Byrd, two brothers, Melvin Owens, and Jessie Easley, two nieces and three nephews.