Bobbie Owensby 

Inductees
Induction Year: 2019

Bobbie Owensby has taught social studies at Marion High School for more than 40 years, serving as a mentor and role model to more than one generation of students, and adults in our community as well. As the sponsor of the MHS Black History Club, she has helped to expand horizons for students with annual spring break trips to historically black colleges and universities, along with annual plays, and more. She is a respected and beloved community leader.

Despite the challenges of growing up as a sharecropper’s daughter and one of 12 children, Mrs Owensby has devoted herself to educating the students of Marion, Indiana. Among her successful initiatives is a peer tutoring program enabling students to learn from each other while helping them develop new friendships and a sense of accomplishment. She created an elementary-level summer enrichment program that provides children with supplemental and remedial instruction by licensed teachers.

She sets high expectations and needs only “the look” to get your attention; she is always respected, never having to raise her voice. She gives with a servant’s heart, helping to comfort senior citizens in our community, going above and beyond, and always helping our youths at school or wherever there is a need.

Mrs. Owensby is an active member of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, and the coordinator of summer enrichment literacy programs there and at the Clarence Faulkner Community Center. Her leadership at the Clarence Faulkner Center has helped make it into a thriving place for community activities.

She has earned the Milken Educator Award, a Presidential Citation, the Tony Maidenberg Award for Community Service, the Marion NAACP Sydney L. Smith Award, and Master Teacher Awards at Marion High School. When awarding her with the Maidenberg Award, given by Indiana Wesleyan University to a community member who has made a significant impact locally, Dr. David Wright, President of IWU, said: “She is a woman who maintains the highest standards of conduct while inspiring a passion for life-long learning in those around her.”

Mrs. Owensby graduated from William R. Golden High School in Turrell, Arkansas, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Arkansas AM&N (University of Arkansas – Pine Bluff), and her master’s degree from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

She is married to Vern Owensby, a former police officer, and they are the proud parents of two children, Kyle Owensby and Kellise Owensby Walker, and grandparents to four grandsons.

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