The Cooper-Young Community Association’s board lost one of its most long standing members this year when former president Debbie Sowell “retired,” after 18 years of service. Another of our long term members, June Hurt, recalled some of Debbie’s many accomplishments for us:
“Debbie moved to Cooper Young over 20 years ago, and has served on the CYCA Board of Directors for
about 18 years. About 11 years ago, Debbie served as CYCA President, and she spent over 12 years on
the 4-Miler Race Committee. She also was responsible for maintaining our building as head of the
Building Committee. She was an organizer of the Smallest User Contest put on by MLGW, and the CYCA
and VECA neighborhoods. (CY won, by the way.) And finally, she served a couple of years as the
President of the PTA at Peabody Elementary, where she secured a Kaboom Grant to rebuild the
playground at the school. Debbie has always been willing to lend a helping hand for most anyone that
asked for help and we salute Debbie’s dedication to helping to make Cooper Young a more desirable and
safer place to live, worship, work, and play.”
We know we’ll still see Debbie, her husband Chris, and son Owen at Memphis Made, and other neighborhood haunts, but the board is not the same without her. Her bottomless well of knowledge of Cooper-Young history, tireless energy and civic pride will be sorely missed!
