On Dad’s Day, a special salute for one family in Radnor
Second Casket Flag Ceremony slated for today at Radnor War Memorial
RADNOR » On Father’s Day, four brothers who went to war while their sister stayed home to run the family business will gather to honor her for her efforts on the homefront.
One Cowan brother will not be there. He is the one who did not return from World War II.
After Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States entered the raging conflict.
All five sons from the Cowan family, who owned Cowan’s Flower Shop in Wayne, answered the call to serve their country and joined the Army, leaving their teenage sister, Patricia, behind to run the flower shop, Marty Costello, commander of the American Legion of Delaware County told the Board of Commissioners recently.
“One son never came home,” said Costello. “The other four did.”
Today, Father’s Day, the second in a series of flag casket ceremonies will take place at 6 p.m. at the War Memorial on North Wayne Avenue. The first ceremony happened last month, said Costello.
“Anthony Leslie Cowan was killed in Belgium and buried in the American Cemetery in LeRons, France. He never came home. Charlie, John, Joe and Lawrence did,” said Costello. Along with the Cowan brothers, they will honor their sister, Patricia, who stayed behind to run the family business. She died in 1976.
“Her brothers were fighting the Nazis and the Japanese,” said Costello. “She was interviewed in late ’44 about this very thing. And she was working 10 to 12 hour days as a teenager, loading trucks, delivering flowers. And one of the questions asked by The Suburban newspaper staff at that time was, ‘Do you believe your brothers will come back to the floral business?’ Because they grew up in the floral business. Their father died in 1933 so Leslie and Charles, who were twin brothers, they had to leave school to run the flower shop. And the rest of them chipped in.”
“In the paper she ponders, ‘War changes men,’” said Costello. “Here’s a teenage girl saying this. ‘I don’t know if they’re going to come back but if they wish to come back, they have a job here at Cowan’s Florist.’ So we’re going to be honoring this young lady who did what many Americans did in this great and tragic time in our history, they ran the family business when the men and women were off fighting the wars of our nation.”
“We call it the Flags of our Fathers,” said Costello. He invited everyone to come “on this Father’s Day and witness the reunion of all the Cowan boys celebrating their fathers and the uncle they never met, the veterans of the wars of our nation who helped change and build our communities. This is what this is all about.”
Commissioner Jim Higgins noted that the Cowan Park was named for Leslie Cowan who died in World War II.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Charlie Cowan, whose father is one of the five Cowan brothers being honored. The third Sunday of every month through October local men who went to war and came back to build businesses in the community will be honored, he said. Charlie Cowan, one of four children, was not born until after his dad returned from the war.
Cowan said that most of his cousins plan to come to the ceremony on Sunday.
“I am positive everyone will be represented by their children,” Cowan said. “Les got killed in the war and never had a family.” He was in his early 20s when he died, he said.
“They didn’t talk a whole lot about the war when they came back,” said Cowan, who works at the family business now. “There weren’t a lot of stories told. They went so young. Most of them were right out of high school or they were still in high school when they went (to war).”