People

: Marie Louise (Johns) Nowlan; Early Mesa County resident, born in Aspen, who moved with her family to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1909. She was born in Aspen, Colorado to Salida Gertrude (Hunt) Johns and Stephen John Johns. Her parents were both born in Colorado. Her father, born to English immigrants, was a coal miner in Aspen before moving to Grand Junction, where he was a streetcar conductor and freight agent for the Grand Junction streetcar line, before becoming an employee of the local utility company. Her mother was a homemaker and, reputedly, the first white girl born in Salida. Marie’s family moved to Grand Junction for her father’s health. The 1910 US Census shows the family living at 937 Colorado Avenue, when Marie was four years old. In 1920, they lived at 1018 Colorado Avenue. The 1930 US Census shows Marie living with her parents at the age of twenty-four and working as a saleslady in a shoe store. She married Louis Conway Nowlan on June 8, 1930. They had two children. The 1940 census shows them living with their daughter and with Marie’s parents at 1018 Colorado Avenue, with Marie working as a bookkeeper for a freight and transfer company and Louis working as a real estate agent. She died at the age of ninety-nine. She was a member of the First Methodist Church.