Alice Rowlands

Alice Rowlands, nee Kinney, age 91, beloved wife of the late William; loving mother of Susan Cronin (Bart) of Tulsa and Cindy Brunelli (Carey) of Chicago; dear sister of Helen Lutes of Naples, FL, the late Rosemary Larrabee, and the late Dorothy Callahan; grandmother of Shaun Cronin (Jennie), Katie Morgan, Molly Held (Andy), Tim Cronin, and Morgan and Lindsay Brunelli; great-grandmother of Mary and Brigid Cronin and Jose Held. Alice was born October 2, 1918 in Anaconda, MT, the youngest daughter of the late Professor Edward D. and Sophia Kinney. The family moved to Lawrence in 1921 when Professor Kinney joined the faculty at the University of Kansas. Alice attended schools in Lawrence, including the University of Kansas for two years, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta. She married William in 1938 and lived in Lawrence until she moved with her oldest daughter to Cleveland, OH to be with her sister while William served overseas during World War II. After the war, the family returned to Lawrence where Alice lived until 1986 when she moved to Naples, FL. Alice worked for many years at Vicker’s Gift Shop on Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, while her husband first owned and operated Rowlands College Bookstore and later was night administrator at the Kansas Memorial Union. She resided in Naples until 2008 when she moved to Tulsa, where she passed away on January 25, 2010. A memorial Mass was celebrated at the Parish of Christ the King in Tulsa on January 30; internment is planned for Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Lawrence this spring.