ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETH BOWLES, who led the crusade against massage parlors on Williamson Road, is leaving Roanoke City Council.
When Elizabeth Bowles was elected to City Council in 1976, some 28 massage parlors and adult bookstores formed a seedy gantlet along the Williamson Road corridor she had called home for more than three decades.
Twenty years later, she still lives there, but the massage parlors are gone. Two adult bookstores remain, but restricted in promoting their X-rated wares, they're difficult to pick out from the myriad restaurants, gas stations, car dealerships and other businesses along Williamson Road.
More than anyone else on council, that legacy belongs to Bowles, 74, who on Monday announced she won't be seeking re-election this year.
After 20 years, City Council's "grandmother" is calling it quits. Flanked by longtime colleagues such as former mayor Noel Taylor and former councilman Robert Garland, Bowles made the announcement at her home on Grandview Avenue Northwest.
Serving on council has "been a love of mine for 20 years," Bowles said. "You don't just walk off and leave without feeling very emotional about it."
The former bakery owner is one of two GOP council members who have decided to not seek re-election in May. The other is USAir executive and first-term Councilman Mac McCadden, who is expected to make a formal statement this morning.
Bowles' decision wasn't exactly voluntary. Instead, it was driven largely by the failing eyesight of her husband of 56 years, Ralph Bowles.
After slowly losing his peripheral vision to glaucoma, doctors a year ago told the former World War II prisoner of war that another eye disease would soon take what remains of his eyesight.
Last year, Ralph Bowles was declared legally blind. What's left of his vision may be gone by year's end.
He and the councilwoman are moving from their longtime home to a one-level condominium in Southwest Roanoke. She doesn't believe she can spare the time away from him that City Council duties demand.
Bowles, the last holdout from the independent 1976 "Roanoke Forward" ticket, has always been one of council's quieter members. Rarely does she speak out except in praise - and even then she can get misty-eyed.
Tears came to her eyes earlier this year as she extolled City Manager Bob Herbert when council marked his 10-year anniversary at the city's helm.
She's also no headline grabber.
"My interests have not been out there for the media to pick up on, glaringly, but human interests," she said. Those include beautification efforts, service on the Total Action Against Poverty board of directors, and work on behalf of the Williamson Road Area Business Association, a group she helped found in 1981.
"We hate to see her go," association president Lynwood Locklear said Monday. "She puts in many, many hours in representing this area out here. ... She will be missed out here, I'm sure. there's no doubt about that."
She will also be missed on council, Mayor David Bowers said at Monday afternoon's meeting.
"Mrs. Bowles, I take [the retirement] both personally and professionally," Bowers said. "You've been a grandmotherly figure to our citizens. They love you and respect you."
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Elizabeth Bowles, known as the Roanokeby CNBCity Council ``grandmother,'' is stepping down after 20 years.
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