Mary Lowe Shares Lake Memories

It goes without saying that in the nearly seven decades Mary Lowe has lived on Breezy Beach—in the same house—she has seen a lot of changes and has a lifetime of memories.

Born and raised in Niles, Mary and Dale, who passed away nine years ago, moved into a small cottage on Barron Lake where they began their married life. “When we first moved here, it was cold and had no insulation. Really. It was just like moving into a barn,” she said. “We didn’t have a furnace when the house was first built so we used a space heater to heat the whole house.”.

She recalled her first stove, which wasn’t really her favorite. “We had an old electric stove, the kind that was set up on legs high off the floor. I looked at that and thought how am I going to cook with electricity? I was used to cooking with gas,” she said, noting she was happy when they updated to gas. “I remember we used to lose our power a lot and if we did, I could turn on the gas burner and help heat the house.”

The Lowes were relieved to see a power station installed on Barron Lake Road. “It used to be really bad when we first moved here. It seemed like every time the wind blew, the power went out. But now it’s much better and we don’t have as many outages.”

Mary also recalled the “Breezy Beach Club” she and her neighbors formed to help bring light to their street. “It was really dark over here when we first moved in, and we had the dead-end road. There were always kids just driving down to the end of the road to park because nobody could see them. We didn’t want that happening anymore so the people on Breezy Beach decided we had to do something. We got everybody together and we bought our own streetlights. I don’t remember how much money we gave but it was worth it to have those streetlights,” she said, noting they were tall black pillars with globe lights on top.

As time went on and their family grew, so did the cottage. Raising two children in a two-bedroom home wasn’t providing enough living quarters—and it became apparent they needed to expand the home when the family expanded. All told, they raised four children in the house—Kimberly, Christine, Karen and Larry.

She has a lot of good memories raising her children on the lake—a lot of which revolve around being outside, whether in their yard or in the water. They spent quite a bit of time boating, swimming, fishing and just having fun in the water. They also hosted many parties ranging from their children’s birthday and graduation parties, family reunions, 4th of July celebrations and Dale’s retirement from Tyler Refrigeration, a place he worked for 30 years.

“We used to have family reunions with both sides of our families, and everyone would come out here,” Mary said. “Nobody wanted to do it at their house, so we always hosted, especially the 4th of July, which was my favorite because of all the beautiful fireworks. I do remember, though, we used to ask people to bring their own chairs. We just never had enough of our own.”

While raising her children, Mary worked and did quite a bit of volunteering at the schools and for the Barron Lake Association. She served for five years as the lake association secretary and always went beyond the standard responsibility of recording meeting minutes.

She was a huge help at the Las Vegas nights sponsored by the Barron Lake Association. “We used to do these nights over at the Oasis Lounge (inside the building that was formerly the Avalon Ballroom on Lake Shore Drive). We had a roulette table, slot machines and card games. We made kind of good money and used it to help pay for expenses with the weed harvester,” she said. “We would do it when Notre Dame was playing USC. That has always been big rivalry. People would be playing games and watching the football game. It was really a fun night.”

Mary also helped with the “Barron Lake Newspaper,” a joint venture with Doris Parker. Once the minutes were typed, the ladies would make copies, collate and staple the sheets, readying them to mail to the people on the lake. “We did it after each of the meetings. The newspaper had all the information from the meetings and sometimes people put in ads for things they were selling,” Mary said.

Her husband, Dale, was extremely active as well. He served two terms as a Cass County Commissioner, was a Howard Township Supervisor, a board chair of the Woodland Behavioral Health Care Network, a member of the Southwest Michigan Substance Abuse Advisory Council, the Howard Township Zoning Board of Appeals Claims Committee, and numerous other committees and councils.

He also was active with the Barron Lake Association and instrumental in guiding lake residents when sewers were being installed in the late 1990s. Soon after, Dale took on a more active role in politics.

“Dale always wanted to be a supervisor. When he retired, he really got involved in the politics and he just loved it. He got elected as the Howard Township Supervisor in 2012 and then he died on Christmas Day in 2013. He only had one year as supervisor but at least the good Lord let him have that. He had done everything he wanted to do. Well, almost. He wanted to go to Alaska and that’s the only thing he didn’t get to do,” Mary said.

Told by Mary Lowe. Written by Jodi Marneris. December 2022. Barron Lake Association.