Clifton Bowles Jr

Clifton C. Bowles Jr., 88, Paducah, Ky., died Friday, December 2, 2011, 12:30 p.m., at his residence in Paducah.

Mr. Bowles confessed Christ at an early age at Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which is now Enoch Chapel Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He later united by baptism with Washington Street Missionary Baptist Church in 1969. He sang in the choir and served as a Deacon.

He received his education from the Paducah City Schools, graduating from Lincoln High School and his mortuary science education from Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago, Illinois. He became a funeral director and licensed embalmer in the states of Illinois and Kentucky. He began his career with Hamock Funeral Home in 1949 and was co-owner of the former Hamock-Bowles Funeral Home, where he retired in 2003. He was a member of the Kentucky Association of Morticians and Funeral Directors Inc. and was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Governor Julian Carroll on September 13, 1976.

Mr. Bowles has been a member of Stone Square Lodge 5 for 64 years, and held the position of Treasurer for 40 years. He is a member of Balkis Temple 157, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine and Paducah Consistory 92, both Prince Hall Affiliated. He received the Supreme Councils of the 33rd Degree in Washington, D.C., on October 14, 1985.

Mr. Bowles was preceded in death by his parents, Clifton C. Bowles Sr. and Georgia Mae Archer Bowles Lett; maternal grandparents, Joe Archer and Delie Enoch Archer; two sisters, Goline Bowles and Jean Marvis Bowles Graham; and three uncles.

Mr. Bowles is survived by two nephews, Reverend Clifton L. (Carla) Graham and Ronald L. Graham; two nieces, Karla M. Graham and Cheryl D. (David) Cammack, all of St. Louis, Mo.; other great-nieces and great-nephews; and several cousins, including Clifton Lee Chappell, Dallas, Texas; devoted friend, William Anderson, Paducah, Ky.; lifelong friends, Charles Elmo Polk, St. Thomas Island, and Almeta Hunt, Paducah, Ky.; other relatives, friends, and caregivers.

Services are scheduled for Friday, December 9, 2011, 12 noon, at Washington Street Missionary Baptist Church, 721 Washington Street, Paducah, Ky. Reverend Raynarldo Henderson and Reverend Clifton J. Graham will officiate, and burial will follow at Maplelawn Park Cemetery in Paducah.

The family will receive visitors at Pettus-Rowland Funeral Home, 1229 Madison Street, Paducah, Ky., on Thursday, December 8, 2011, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. Masonic Rites will also be conducted at 6:30 p.m. at the funeral home. Friends may call again on Friday from 10 a.m. until the funeral hour at Washington Street Missionary Baptist Church.

Pettus-Rowland Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.