Toian Bowser-Alexander

TOIAN BOWSER-ALEXANDER On March 13, 1938, Toian Sanita Bowser was born in Topeka, KS. She died in Bluffton, SC on May 21, 2016. She was the daughter of Pearl Lewis-Bowser and S.N. Bowser, owners of the Bowser mortuaries located in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Coffeyville, Parsons, Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. Toian attended and graduated from Monroe Elementary School, (now on the National Register of Historic Places, as the setting for the landmark decision, Brown v Board of Education), Crane Jr. High, Topeka High, and Kansas University, where she earned the Bachelor of Art degree in Music Therapy. Toian interned at the Menninger Clinic, then in Topeka, Kansas, and at Overbrook Mental Hospital, Cedar Grove NJ. In 1962 she accepted a position as music therapist at Patton State Hospital, in California. In 1963, Toian married William Wallick Anderson. They were blessed with a son, Darin Vincent Bowser-Anderson, currently of Southern California. In that same year she changed employment, and for the next 16 years she was a Los Angeles Deputy Probation Officer. In 1979, Toian again changed careers and joined the financial planning firm, Independent Financial Planning, Inc., in Torrance, CA. She became a licensed securities and insurance representative and was awarded the designation, Certified Financial Planner, in 1986. On Christmas Day, 1986, she met James Edward Alexander on an airplane. She often said, “We were our Christmas present to each other.” She was his enthusiastic supporter through law school, and they were married in 1990. In 2001, she was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Following surgery to remove a lobe, she was deemed “cancer free.” In 2004 she and James Edward moved to Bluffton .When her illness returned in 2013, she sought the services of Dr. Gifford Lorenz, pulmonologist, and Dr. Mark Taylor, oncologist, both of Savannah. Toian said, “Because of the quality of care provided by doctors Lorenz and Taylor, I had the length and quality of life I was able to enjoy since 2013.” Toian spent her years in the Low Country singing with at least 5 choral groups, including the Bluffton United Methodists Chancel choir, the Sea Inland Singers, and the Hilton Head Symphony Chorus; playing bridge with girlfriends; traveling with her extremely interesting husband, and generally having a VERY good time. She is survived by her husband, James Edward Alexander; two sisters, Sonja Bowser-Nelson and Estelle Bowser-White; her son, Darin Vincent Bowser-Anderson; two nieces, Errin Saleh and Ashley D'Agostino, and nephew Brian White and several grand nieces and nephews.