Owen was a Marine Corps veteran and actively served during WWII. He was a crew chief on B-25s and saw action in the South Pacific. During his 66 years in the archery business, Owen was a world-renowned Master Bowyer, and held multiple archery tournament championship titles and had been recently nominated to the Archery Hall of Fame. In 1976, Owen started Jeffery Archery which is a manufacturing and retail business in Columbia, SC. In 1978, he was a guest instructor for the French Institute of Sports, training the instructors of the French National Archery Team in advanced archery techniques. In recent years, most everyone knew Mr. Jeffery as an avid outdoorsman, hunter and tireless ambassador for the sport of archery.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Erin Adeline Tidwell Jeffery, with whom he shared a union of more than 54 years; as well as a brother, Gerald Jeffery.
He is survived by his two children, Tom Jeffery and Sharon Moreau (Joe); sister, Iona Boicourt; brother, Melvin Jeffery; two grandchildren, Meghan Heather and Joe Moreau IV, and three great-grandchildren, Claire and Caitlin Heather, and Joey Moreau V; and one nephew, Melvin Jeffery.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, March 21, 2016, at Thompson Funeral Home at Greenlawn Memorial Park, 845 Leesburg Road, Columbia, SC 29209. The family will receive friends for one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Inurnment will follow in Greenlawn Memorial Park.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Bill O'Reilly Independence Fund, by visiting http://independencefund.org/page/donate.
