Helen and Eugene Rowe

•February 6, 2019•

By Jazzy Rowe
for the News Progress

Eugene Rowe is going to celebrate his 99th birthday with Ansar Shriners in Springfield.
Rowe joined the Shriners back in the 1940s with Free Masons friends, and although he hasn’t been active in the past few years, the 16th annual Ansar Shrine Chili Cookoff at Boondocks in Springfield is on his birthday Feb 17 so he figures he might go.
Gene and wife Helen lived in Sullivan since 1974 where he has enjoyed being a faithful St. Louis Cardinal and University of Illinois fan. Now Helen is gone and Jasmine, their cat of 18 years, keeps him company.
“I brought the cat home from John Carroll’s welding shop, but I made them agree to take it back if Helen didn’t approve,” Rowe says of the day he brought Jasmine home. “I took her inside and told Helen the deal I had made at the welding shop. She looked at the cat and looked at me and said ‘You’re not taking that cat back’ and Jazzy stayed.”     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.