Bowlers,
Optimists
celevrate

PAGE 51

Blindness doesn't
stop Estelle
from bowling

WHEN GOD created Estelle Howden, He gave her long life

and a strong arm.

At 94, Howden bowls in two leagues twice a week at West
Vancouver’s Brunswick Lions Gate Lanes. She’s clinicaily
blind but hasn’t missed a game in five years.

“It gives me something to do
where I can be with my lovely
friends,’” says Howden of West
Vancouver.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana
in 1895, Howden studied at the
Chicago Conservatory of Music
and sang professional opera and
musical comedy.

She married Charles Howden
and lived in New York for 35 years
before moving to Los Angeles,
California in 1957. tt was then that
she took up bowling, and has been
on the ball ever sirice.

Now the oldest bowler at
Brunswick Lanes, Howden’s
fellow bowlers have nothing but
praise for her.

**We all just love her,’’ says
Jeanie Sankey, who looks after
two seniors bowling leagues.

The seniors leagues meet two
times a week at Brunswick Lanes

By EVELYN JACOB

News Keporter

to bowl on Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons. It’s good exercise for
the seniors, says Sankey, and it
gives them something to look for-
ward to. Six of this year’s
members are over 85 years old.

**Old people have to have some-
thing to keep them active. Once in
a while we put our arms around
each other and give the occasional
kiss,’’ says Sankey, herself 83
years old.

As for Howden, she may not
have discovered the key to immor-
tality, but plans to keep the balls
rolling down Brunswick Lanes for
as long as she possibly can.

“I'm going to do it until I’m not
able to move,’’ she says.

FELLOW BOWLERS have nothing but praise for 94-year-old Estelle
Howden. Although she is clinically blind, Howden bowls in two teagues
twice a week at West Yancouver’s Brunswick Lions Gate Lanes. She
hasn't missed a game in fi-e years.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

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