Lt. Col. Samuel Pressly Bowles, Jr.

Lt. Col. Samuel Pressly Bowles, Jr., 90, died on August 19 of 2018. He was born on March 19, 1928 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was a resident of Lakeland, FL since 1966 and Little Gasparilla Island from 1990 until 2016. He was a veteran of 34 years of active and reserve service in the Army. He was a graduate of Georgia Military Academy and The University of Georgia. He was an elder in the Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in Tampa and the Presbyterian Chapel in the Grove in Lakeland, past President of the Lakeland Family YMCA, member of the Lakeland Yacht and Country Club and Lone Palm Golf Club and Sec. Treas. of Jefferson-Allsopp, Inc. where he retired in 1990. He is preceded in death by his father, Rev. Samuel P. Bowles and his mother, Eugenia Harris Bowles. He is survived by his wife Lucille Allen Bowles of Lakeland and his children, Sara Bowles Mathews of Lexington, Georgia and Samuel Thomas Bowles of Lakeland, and his three sisters, Eugenia Bowles Watkins, Ruth Bowles Eckstine and Matilda Bowles McLain. Viewing will be held in the Tribute Center at the Heath Funeral Chapel in Lakeland on Thursday, Aug. 23 from 4-6 pm and the funeral will be at The Chapel In The Grove on Friday, Aug. 24 at 10 am. He will be buried at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, FL. In lieu of flowers please donate to: Thornwell Orphanage, 302 South Broad St., Clinton, SC 29325; www.thornwell.org/make-donation.