Wilma M. "Shortie" Lowry

Wilma M. “Shortie” Lowry journeyed home to be with her Lord on Monday, July 6, 2020, after a lengthy battle with dementia. She was a fighter, but a three-month COVID-19 experience made her challenge insurmountable.

Nicknamed “Shortie” at an early age because of her diminutive 4’9” stature, she was quick to remind those around her that even dynamite comes in small packages. The middle child of nine siblings, Shortie was born in Putnam County, IN, but left at age 17 for the adventures New Mexico offered.

On arriving in Albuquerque, Shortie met and was “adopted” by local businesspeople James and Anna McAlpine. Anna, a former Fred Harvey Girl, offered her a job at one of their diners, the Knotty Pine Cafe, in the Old Town area. There, Shortie became friends with an assortment of locals who met frequently for coffee and talk, including a young Glen Campbell; Louie and Jerry Unser, Jr.; pueblo artisan, Maria Martinez; and Maria’s son, Popovi Da. To Shortie, these folks, who would become some of NM’s most recognizable names, were “just the kids you ran around with back then.”

She maintained a lifelong pride in being from the home of the Indy 500, and one of her joys was going to stock car races at Albuquerque’s fledgling tracks. A mutual love of auto racing introduced her to James Lowry, the man she would marry.

James and Shortie started their life together living in Old Town Albuquerque where the Lowry clan had settled after moving from Arkansas, post-WWII. The couple’s family grew with the birth of a daughter.

As a young wife and mother, Shortie was a tireless volunteer for the Mothers’ March of Dimes, collecting countless folders of dimes from across the city to support the effort to find a cure for polio. It is ironic that she recognized even then how devastating an unaddressed epidemic could be. She continued her charitable volunteerism as long as her health permitted.

Not a person who ever liked sitting still, she became obsessed with the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta during its inaugural years. Always fastidious about the treatment of her cars, Shortie shocked us all when she suddenly began dodging barbed wire, bouncing over rocks, swerving around trees, and roaring across dry river beds in her Volkswagen Beetle to join chase crews as they gathered up the brightly colored silk of the balloons she so loved. She and James also were lifelong pari-mutuel horse racing devotees, and many of their weekends during the 1960s and 70s were spent on road trips to one of New Mexico’s then-numerous Thoroughbred or Quarter Horse tracks.

Shortie was preceded in death by her parents, Hugh and Minnie Mangus; sisters, Irene, Lucille, and Melba; brothers, Don, Art, Mel, and Dallas; and, most notably, the love of her life, husband, James. She is survived by daughter, Rebecca (and Paul, Rebecca’s True North); her sister, Mavis Cole; dozens of nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews; and her “almost-son” and “almost-daughter,” Bill McConnell and Margaret McConnell Baca.

We would like to thank the remarkable staff at Uptown Rehabilitation Center who became Shortie’s latter-day family and were there for her on the bad days as well as the good—we know they learned firsthand that dynamite indeed comes in small packages. Thank you to Compassus Hospice and to French Funerals and Cremations. Both made the difficult a little easier.

If you would like to celebrate Shortie’s life in a way that helps others, please consider contributing to the March of Dimes/March for Babies; NM Horse Rescue/Walkin N Circles Ranch; or Animal Protection Voters of NM. Please visit our online guestbook for Shortie at www.FrenchFunerals.com