Frances Chloe Gowen Curry
February 3, 1927 - May 1, 2021
Surrounded by her children, the beloved matriarch of the Curry family, Frances Chloe Gowen Curry, passed away at home in Granada Hills on May 1, 2021 at the age of 94. She had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Born February 3, 1927 in Fresno, California to Joseph (Pap) Lofton Gowen and Mary (Chuke) Dotson Gowen, Chloe was the oldest of ten children. During the Depression, her father worked as an accountant for the Chuquicamata Copper Mine in Chile, where the family lived until their return to the Southern California area just prior to the war. They moved from Calexico to Long Beach, finally settling in Malibu. She graduated from Saint Monica’s High School, studied at Holy Names College in Oakland, and earned a BS from UCLA’s School of Health in 1949. At school she discovered a passion for chemistry. She developed fragrances for Merle Norman Cosmetics and conducted research in infant nutrition for Beech-Nut Foods. She later worked as an executive chef.
She met John Richard (“Dick”) Curry at the Damien Club at Saint Monica’s parish, where they were married on August 28, 1948. The couple raised their seven children in Granada Hills.
Chloe and Dick began a Great Books discussion group that was active for more than forty years. An avid tennis player, Chloe counted among her many friends the “Tennis Group” including Yvonne, Phil, Sharon, Sally, the two Jerrys, Nancy and Ben. Chloe and Dick were founding members of St. John Baptist de la Salle Parish, where Dick presided over the Men’s Club and Chloe was a dedicated member of the choir for 45 years.
Chloe’s husband Dick died in 2007. She is survived by five of her children: Marina Barnett, Peggy Sloniker and husband Steve, Melanie and husband Alfonso Alvarez, Moira, and Damien and wife Amy, as well as fourteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She is also survived by her second husband, Dennis Garrehy.
She was predeceased by daughter and son-inlaw, Martha Diane and Stephen Peacock, and son John Ignatius.