Daisy C. Bowe

Daisy C. Bowe of East Hampton, a graduate of the Bridgehampton School who returned there to become a much-loved elementary teacher for 33 years, died on Dec. 29 at the Adler Center for Caring in Aldie, Va., while visiting one her sons. She was 61 years old and had had cancer for about four months. Her sister, Helen D. Giles, was by her side.

Born Daisy Cecelia Giles on July 17, 1954, in Southampton, Mrs. Bowe was one of four children of Jack Giles and the former Marguerite DeBoard. She was raised in Bridgehampton, graduated from high school in 1972, and earned degrees from the State University at Oneonta and Long Island University’s Southampton College. 

Her entire teaching career was at the Bridgehampton School, where she was named “teacher of the year” several times. She was said to have positively impacted the lives of hundreds of children. Ronnie White, president of the Bridgehampton School Board, who graduated from the school in 1999 and had Mrs. Bowe as a teacher in the fourth and fifth grades, called her “a pillar of our community.”

“She didn’t just teach math, she taught life. She taught responsibility. . . . I always recall that, even to today, in terms of being humble and grateful and continuing to strive to be the best you can be, she helped me understand that.”

Mrs. Bowe was also known for devotion to her faith. She sang in the choir and worked in the scholarship ministry at Bridgehampton’s First Baptist Church for many years.

In 1978, she married John Chesterfield Bowe, known to many as Chet, with whom she had two sons. The couple lived in Sag Harbor for a time before building a house in East Hampton. Mr. Bowe died in 2011.

“Daisy had a great love for family, which was often displayed but in no greater way than those fabulous Christmas ‘events’ held in her home,” her family wrote. “She was an energetic part of life here on the East End and was loved by many.”

In addition to her sister, Helen Giles, who lives in Bridgeport, Conn., Mrs. Bowe is survived by a brother, the Rev. Carleton J. Giles of Middletown, Conn., her sons, Jonathan Keegan Bowe of Herndon, Va., and Jarred Giles Bowe of Brooklyn, a stepson, Troy Bowe of Bellport, and two granddaughters.

A funeral service was held on Saturday at the First Baptist Church. The Brockett Funeral Home of Southampton assisted, and Mrs. Bowe was buried at Edgewood Cemetery in Bridgehampton.