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Louise Pyke Bowling, 92, the wife of the late Rev. Herley Curtis Bowling and sister to the late Rev. James Pyke (who died in January 2010), died from a bone marrow disorder at Asbury Village July 2, 2010. A memorial service was held in Guild Chapel July 24. Interment was in a private service at Arlington National Cemetery in August, alongside her husband.

Louise Taft Pyke was born Jan. 30, 1918, to missionary parents, Frederick Merrill Pyke and Francis Pyke, in the Peking Methodist Compound in China, the year the great influenza pandemic killed millions around the world. The family lived in a part of China that was torn by continual battles among the various warlords vying for control of the local cities and towns. After the shelling, her parents, trained in medicine, helped treat the wounded soldiers.

In 1937, after a year at Yenching University in Beijing, she left China by the trans-Siberian railroad, through Communist Moscow, across Hitler’s Germany, on to England, then the United States to attend Wellesley College.

After her arrival in the U.S., her parents and brother were arrested and sent to a Japanese prison camp in Manchuria, as were many other missionaries.

After college she taught school in Alabama and worked for the Board of Child Welfare in New Jersey, and earned two master’s degrees along the way.

She met her husband-to-be while they attended graduate school at Drew University. They married June 1, 1947, and soon moved to the Oklahoma Conference of the Methodist Church where he served churches in Arnett and Norman. He was called back into military service in 1950 as a Marine Corps chaplain during the Korean War.

Louise Bowling moved a lot to keep up with her husband, who, after the war, pursued additional graduate studies at Drew University, and took a position with the National College for Christian Workers in Kansas City, Mo. for two years. In 1955 he was appointed to the Commission of Chaplains of the Methodist Church, and spent 13 years on the commission, traveling extensively.

In 1969, he returned to parish ministry in the Baltimore-Washington Conference and served at Petworth UMC until 1974; Hillsworth-Chatsworth UMC from 1974-1981; and Otterbein and Aldersgate UMCs from 1981-1983. He retired in 1983. He died in 2001 after years battling Alzheimer’s Disease.

Louise Bowling, living in Asbury Village,  cared for her husband throughout his illness. She herself was afflicted with a serious loss of short-term memory. “Yet throughout it all she was the same charming, loving person, bearing the burden of her disease with grace and even humor,” said her son Tim Bowling.

Survivors include two sons, Herley Jim Bowling of Los Angeles, and Tim Bowling of Derwood, and two grandsons.

Condolences may be sent to Tim Bowling, 18517 Azalea Drive, Derwood, MD 20855.

Memorial gifts may be made to China Outreach Ministries (founded by the Pyke family), 555 Gettysburg Pike, Suite A-200, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055; or to The Asbury Foundation, Benevolent Care Fund, 201` Russell Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877.