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Esther Owens was born Esther Frances Wagner in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, on March 13, 1898, the last of Anna and Max Wagner’s three children. While on a visit home from singing in a light-opera road company, Esther met her future husband, Forest John Maynard, originally from Vermont. After several moves because of Forest’s work, the young couple eventually settled in the Bay Area, first in Berkeley, then in Oakland. 

In 1939, Forest died suddenly in his office in San Francisco, leaving Esther to raise two young daughters. In May 1940, Esther married Jack Owens, an old friend and widower from Oklahoma City, where she and her children then moved. Sadly, in February 1941, Jack suffered a massive heart attack and died soon after.  

During the next years, Esther worked as a USO Hostess in Oklahoma City. She and her daughters remained in Oklahoma until the summer of 1946 when they relocated to Oakland. 

Since the war-time housing shortage was still in full sway, they initially had to live in a bachelor apartment belonging to Esther’s nephew who was still in the service. Her ingenuity came into play when she saw a new seven-unit apartment arising at the top of Broadway and noticed it was not progressing. Finding out the owner was missing a necessary construction component without which he could not proceed, Esther bargained with him. If she could get him what he needed, could she have an apartment, all of which had already been spoken for? With an affirmative answer, she made the contact she already knew she had, procured the material and soon had a nice new home for the family. 

In order to educate her daughters and support the family, Esther worked at Kahn’s Department Store, situated in downtown Oakland’s Rotunda building. Later, she became receptionist, then eventually treasurer at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield while moonlighting at Kahn’s. After 17 years, Esther was hired by Msgr. Pierce Donovan to be secretary/bookkeeper for Corpus Christi Parish in Piedmont. Retiring from there at 80, Esther began 13 years of service as a Providence Hospital Volunteer, eventually earning a 4,000-hours pin. 

Meanwhile, In 1950, Esther and her daughter Marna moved into their Rose Street home in Berkeley and soon joined St. Mary Magdalen Parish where she remained to the end, serving as lector and Eucharistic minister until the age of 95. Each year the parish honored Esther’s birthday at the closest Sunday Mass, with extra special celebrations at 100 and 105. Each time, she was completely surprised.  

Every transition decision, including when to stop driving, Esther made on her own with no prompting from either daughter. This seems to have been true to a certain extent with her final transition to new life. She lay down her burden of years and for a week waited quietly and patiently for God’s call, which finally came very peacefully about 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 13, after 108-and-a-half years of life. 

Here is an impressive resume of those many years: Esther lived in three centuries and survived 19 American presidents, nine popes, six major wars, two husbands and four pet Sheltie dogs. And all the inventions we take for granted came in her lifetime: the automobile, airplane, radio, moving pictures, television, the computer, and space travel, with all that each of them has brought. 

What a life!