Retirement celebration lauds Owens for ‘a lifetime of exceptional service’

Those who know Bethia Owens will surely find it hard to imagine her retirement the way she anticipates her golden years. While she’s surely earned the enjoyable pursuits and fulfillment of leisurefilled years of later life after devoting 42 years to the Eastern Oklahoma Library System — the last 22 as shared branch manager for Sallisaw’s Stanley Tubbs Memorial Library as well as the Muldrow Public Library — it’s almost impossible to imagine the libraries and the communities without Owens at their center.