Joy V. Bowers, 81, special education teacher

Joy V. Bowers, a retired teacher in Baltimore County's public schools, died of pneumonia Monday at Mercy Medical Center. The Essex resident was 81.

Joy Vance was born and raised in Onego, W. Va., and attended Shepherd College in Shepherdstown, W.Va., for two years before beginning her teaching career in 1941 in Brushy Run, W. Va.

In 1950, she married Carl Bowers, moved to Essex and began her career in the county schools.

Mrs. Bowers, who earned a master's degree in special education in 1975 from what is now Towson University, retired in 1980 at Middlesex Elementary.

Her husband, a security guard, died in 1991.

She was a member of First Baptist Church of Essex, and enjoyed collecting antique stone jars, telephones and coffee grinders.

Services will be held at 1 p.m. today at Onego Church of the Brethren in West Virginia.

Surviving are her son, Carl Bowers Jr. of Essex, and three sisters, Eula Bland of Seneca Rocks, W. Va., Grace Harper of Warren, Ohio, and Hope Smith of Baltimore.