April 19, 2024
Martha Eunice Gillespie Lowe, 94, peacefully left this world for her eternal home Thursday March 30, 2023 at Givens Estates, Asheville, N.C.
Martha was born, July 10, 1928 in Shawnee Oklahoma to the late Rev. Dr. J.T. and Janie Green Gillespie. She was the sixth of 12 children and the fifth of nine sisters.
As a woman growing up during the Great Depression, she made outstanding educational accomplishments. She earned degrees from Furman University, Southwestern Theological Seminar, and her registered nursing degree Georgia Baptist Hospital.
Martha met and married Lewis C. Lowe in 1953. For their 49-year marriage she devoted her life first to supporting Lewis’s calling as a Southern Baptist minister, and then caring for him when he became an invalid.
Her nephew Jeff Lowe said the two of them were Southern Baptist home missionaries in the 1960s. They started the first Southern Baptist Church in Chicago and the first Southern Baptist Church on Staten Island in New York.
Later, they moved back to the South and had extensive ministries in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.
Martha and Lewis had three dearly loved children, and she prayed for them every day until her death.
Martha was a strong believer in Christ and exemplified her beliefs in her tireless efforts in helping others. She regularly welcomed all sorts of people into her home, including furloughed missionaries, a pregnant drug addict, a wandering teenager from the circus, and a prematurely widowed sister and small niece. She was always willing to share what she had, and often did without so others would be helped.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and seven siblings.
Surviving family include her children Lewis “Sunny“ Lowe, Dr. Lydia Lowe Floren, and Rebekah M. Lowe; sisters, Mary Word, Naomi Berdeen, Lydia Griffin and Lois Brecht; grandchildren, Zachary Lowe, Stephen Lowe, Kaitlin Lowe, Peter Lowe, Dr. Michael Floren, Daniel Floren, Sharon Lowe Pewitt, Dr. Samuel Floren, and chosen grandson Andrew Donnan; great grandchildren, Brent Lowe, Kaitlyn Lowe, Madison Lowe, Londyn Lowe, Sophia Floren, Lilian Floren and chosen great grand-daughter, Lilly Cacawa; aunt to 44 nieces and nephews and numerous great nieces and nephews; and friends in the Given Estates community.
The family would like to thank Givens Estates and MemoryCare for their kind and expert care during her last 15 years.
Visitation with the family will be 10 -11am Tuesday, April 4, 2023, Pulliam Chapel, 100 Wesley Dr., Givens Estates. Memorial service begins at 11am, also at the Pulliam Chapel. Graveside service and interment will be 12 PM Wednesday, April 5, 2023, in the family plot at Westview Cemetery, Atlanta, GA.
