Alice "Fern" Rowley

Alice Fern Doll was born July 20, 1927 in Ringwood, Oklahoma. After graduating from Ringwood High School, she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in music composition and a Master’s degree in music education. She taught elementary school music for her entire professional career and taught private piano lessons during that time. She had a love for music and composed a song when she was 11 years old that was played on the local radio station in western Oklahoma. She accompanied the Oklahoma State University Glee Club while attending college at OSU and was a long-time member of Sigma Alpha Iota, national music fraternity. Fern also was a member of the Oklahoma and Oklahoma County Retired Educators Associations.

On December 21, 1946, she married George Arthur Rowley, Jr., whom she had known since grade school. George was a school superintendent, so he and Fern moved to different towns and cities in Oklahoma as he advanced in his career as a school administrator, including Freedom, Crawford, Coyle, Perkins, Blackwell and finally Edmond in 1973. Fern taught music in most of those schools. They both retired from Edmond Public Schools in 1988 and began traveling, but remained living in Edmond at Touchmark @ Coffee Creek. After 65 years of marriage, George passed away in 2013, and Fern stayed in Edmond until her death.

While living at Touchmark, Fern was able to enjoy her musical hobby by playing piano for happy hours and the weekly church service, by singing in the Golden Harmonizers, and by playing in the Old Timers Chimers chime choir at Touchmark. She enjoyed the weekly Wine Down Wednesdays until the end.

George and Fern traveled to many places in the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska. They traveled to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. George’s ancestors were Irish and Fern’s were Scottish. They traveled to various parts of Canada, both eastern and western. In the hot Oklahoma summers during their working years, they spent a few months in Gunnison, Colorado, where they fished on the Blue Mesa Reservoir and enjoyed visiting Crested Butte and entertaining various family members who visited them there.

The Rowley family is an Oklahoma State University family, for sure. George, Fern and three of their four children graduated from OSU, as well as their granddaughter, Maya. For years, George and Fern had season tickets to OSU basketball and football games and enjoyed attending basketball games with their son Jerry and his wife Linda, and football games with George’s sister and her husband.

George and Fern were lifelong members of the Presbyterian Church. Fern was preceded in death by her husband, George. She is survived by her sister Rose, her four children: Jerry and wife Linda; Kenny; Robert and wife Karla; and Valli; six grandchildren: Heather, David, Adam, Leslie, Michael and Maya; and many great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services for Alice "Fern" Rowley will be at Matthews Funeral Home Chapel Tuesday September 15th, 2026 at 2:00 pm. Public viewing will be before the service from 1:00 pm to 1:45 pm. Burial will follow the service at Gracelawn Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, feel free to make a charitable donation to the George A. and A. Fern Rowley Endowed Scholarship at the Oklahoma State University Foundation, or a charity of your choice.