Good neighbor Roy Ownbey is the best men’s and mixed doubles tennis partner in University City. He taught history 30 years in San Diego Unified, one year each in Georgia, in his hometown of Cleveland, Tenn., and in the Navy. He was a crackerjack teacher and a calm disciplinarian. Ask the University City High School students who had him the last 9 1/2 years of his career, which ended in 1990. Ownbey has also written many country-western songs the last 30-plus years, but none so tender as “My Rosemary,” dedicated to his wife of 54 years, who passed away last July 14. He lost her once before to the damaging onset of dementia. As a young man, Ownbey enjoyed Hank Snow’s music and ended up writing an approved biography of Snow, who played the Grand Ole Opry in 1950 and recorded “I’m Movin’ On,” a song 17 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard. Snow welcomed Ownbey’s visits to Snow’s Madison, Tenn. house outside Nashville.   “Snow actively campaigned against child abuse,” according to Ownbey.. “He was a victim himself and had a tender heart.  I never pushed him. Sometimes I had to wait a year between meetings because he was so engaged in his child abuse campaign.” La Jolla artist Sebastian Capella, a weekly tennis host to Ownbey for several years, drew a charcoal portrait of Snow for Ownbey, who had it framed and gave it to Snow. The drawing had a place of honor on the wall of Snow’s den. Like a lot of Navy guys a certain age, Ownbey met his wife at Mexican Village, a restaurant/bar in Coronado, now closed. Many romances and future marriages were begun there during and after the Vietnam war. Ownbey’s song is so poignantly beautiful as he describes seeing his future wife in the restaurant and knowing that night, in December of 1960, he had met the love of his life. He and Rosemary married in Atlanta on March 31, 1961. And he, his daughter Jill and his granddaughter Kendall recently flew back to Tennessee to bury Rosemary’s ashes on the family plot. “My Rosemary,” he wrote, “she was so good to me, the sweetness in her smile, the softness in her eyes. She was everything that love could ever be.” He had sent the lyrics to a singer in Nashville, Dave Park, who has recorded for him before.
“I paid [Park] to record it,” he explained, “but I can’t sell his version. I then hired Geary Hanley, a popular country-western singer, to record it. A person could listen to ‘My Rosemary’ and download just ‘My Rosemary’ or the CD with 10 or 11 of my other songs on it.” Ownbey still gets royalties from songs, and he enjoys playing guitar and writing songs with friends. “I have written ballads,” he said, “fast tempo, and every subject you can think of, whatever comes to mind. Emailing has taken the place of the phone, of course.” “I Wish That Every Day Could Be Like Christmas” is a song George Hamilton IV recorded and is Ownbey’s most successful recording monetarily. One of his fun-loving hits is “I’ll Stay Till the Beer Runs Out.” But “My Rosemary” is so powerful in its love, knowing that Rosemary suffered so much, especially the last seven years of her life. Their love story is the love story of many older couples in today’s world of wash-and-wear relationships. “Many years,” he said, “Rosemary and I went back to Tennessee once every two summers. She didn’t like to fly, but she did it.” He added that it had been 12 years since they went back to his childhood home in Tennessee. “Rosemary’s medical challenges the last 12 years, with her unhealthy heart, polymyalgia and pain… too much.” She would have gone back if I pushed it.” Ownbey has three sisters and a brother. Another brother preceded them in death. Life must be lived forward. On April 16, Ownbey’s granddaughter Kendall will turn 18.  She is coming full circle and will go to college at Lee University in his hometown of Cleveland, Tenn., studying classical and Broadway music with an emphasis on opera (a student from Lee appeared on NBC’s “The Voice”). Anybody can listen to “My Rosemary” through streaming media, and everybody should. Have the Kleenex box close at hand.