Boulder resident Sheilah J. Bowles, died Thursday, Jan. 5, at Frasier Meadows Health Care Center in Boulder, Colo. She was 100.
Sheilah Bowles, 100, passed away recently. A date for a memorial service has not yet been announced.
She was born Sheilah Julyan Donkin on Feb. 27, 1916 in London, England, the daughter of Norah Evelyn (Conlon) and Herbert Donkin. At the age of four, she left England with her parents to live in India.
She was educated in England, France and Germany, where she became fluent in French and German. In India she learned to speak Hindi.
Shortly after her father died in India, Sheilah and her mother left for England at the start of World War II. Upon arriving in England, Sheilah joined the Women’s Royal Navy. One of her assignments was at Bletchley Park where the Enigma code was broken.
After the war, she was stationed in Minden, Germany where she met the American liaison officer John Bowles. After their marriage in London, Sheilah left on a “bride boat” for New York City, to start her life as a newlywed.
Sheilah and John had four children; John Eliot, Jenifer Clopton, Bryan Donkin, and Sheilah Elizabeth (Liz).
They raised their children in Darien, where Sheilah volunteered for the Red Cross and other community activities.
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— an obituary from Darrell Howe Mortuary
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In 1978, Sheilah and John moved to Boulder to be close to their children and begin a new life. Sheilah volunteered her time for various organizations, she made many new friends in Boulder who will cherish her memory. She was a loving, kind, and caring mother, with a marvelous sense of humor.
Preceding Sheilah in death were her parents, her husband John, and their oldest child John.
Those family members left to cherish her memory are her children Jenifer Bowles-Martinez and her husband Gene, Bryan Bowles and his wife Beth, and Elizabeth Shaffer and her husband Bill. Also surviving are her grandchildren: Jana, John Philip, Jessica, Esteban, Alyssa, Will, Andrew and Sam; great-grandchildren: Sadie, Shiloh, Emily and Everett. She is survived by one great-great-grandson, Emmitt.
To know Sheilah is to have loved her. She will be truly missed.
Her family would like to thank the staff at Frasier Meadows Health Care Center in Boulder for their devotion and care of Sheilah.
Cremation was chosen and a celebration of Sheilah’s life will be announced in the next few months.