Eleanor Antonia Amaral Bowen Kazaras passed away peacefully on January 27, 2015 in the care of family and friends at Pender Memorial Hospital in Burgaw. She was ninety-three.

She was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1921, the daughter of Jesse and Elvera Martine Amaral. As a child, she and her sister, Maria, were taken to the island of San Miguel in the Azores to be raised by an extended family that included her paternal grandmother, her great-aunt and her Uncle Joseph, the parish priest. Eleanor would joke that she was raised in the church. Really raised in the church, and it was true. The beautiful sanctuary with its cobble stoned courtyard was her second home, a place to be when not at school being taught to read and write as well as cook, sew, embroider, knit and crochet.

Their grandmother's death unexpectedly sent Eleanor and her sister back to their parents in America, and an apartment in New York City, while they were still quite young. Always a quick learner, Eleanor picked up English easily and in less than two years was attending Julia Richmond High School and later, Hunter College, in the City.

In 1945 she married Jerome Bowen, son of Annie and Tate Bowen of Stoney Run, two miles west of Burgaw. Jerome and Eleanor settled down in the outskirts of Queens, New York, in a new community of homes built on land that had previously been a potato farm. There, they converted their yard into a garden to grow collard and mustard greens, a dietary necessity for Jerome and a mystery to Eleanor, who quickly learned to cook all things southern, but could never understand how Jerome could call a biscuit crumbled up in a glass of buttermilk and eaten with a spoon, desert.

In order to differentiate between his wife and his sister, also named Eleanor, Jerome began calling his wife Toni.

Toni loved clothes and she loved to sew. If you showed her an item of clothing you liked, she could make it for you. She made her daughter Jessica's horseshow outfits, complete with matching saddle covers. And one summer, she made a ten person tent for a family camp-out. That tent still stands out in the minds of many, not only for its thirty foot length, but its color as well. Always thrifty, Toni had come across a giant remnant of bright red canvas at a bargain price and did not hesitate to use it.

When Jerome retired in 1970, he and Toni moved to North Carolina and the house he'd grown up in outside Burgaw. Toni quickly found a job at the Village Shop in Burgaw where she worked for many years doing purchasing, sales and alterations.

Widowed in 1976, Eleanor, as she began being called again, was later married to artist "Captain" George Kazaras, a denizen of the Florida Keys. Together they built the remarkable eight-sided home off Henry Brown Road that became their hide-away.

A loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Eleanor will be greatly missed by her sister Maria Del Toro of Metairie, Louisiana, her daughters Maria Bowen Savage and Jessica Bowen; grandson Michael Bowen, granddaughters Harmony Bowen, Maya, Fairley, Caity and Dakotah Parson and great-grandchildren Beau and Blaise Ramsey. Eleanor adored her step-son Thomas Koschock and his wife, Janet of Seminole, Florida. Eleanor was preceded in death by her daughter Antonia Deborah Springer and husband George Kazaras. She leaves behind several nieces and nephews and a host of friends, relatives and admirers.

Eleanor always looked forward to going to Mass at St Joseph's Catholic Church in St Helena. The family is grateful for St Joseph's home visits during Eleanor's last months. The family would also like to thank Pender Memorial and the Lower Cape Fear Hospice for their help during Eleanor's final days. They are also grateful to Vikki Atkinson and Stephanie McClendon for their attentive care. A Memorial gathering is being planned for the spring.