HALLOWELL – Irene Frances Bowie died Friday, Dec. 31, in Hallowell. She was 80 years old.

Born Irene Frances Hodgkins in Lewiston on Sept. 16, 1924, she was the daughter of Elmer E. Hodgkins and Helena Sullivan Hodgkins of Lisbon. She was a resident of Lisbon, from birth until her 76th year. When she was 76, failing health required that she move to a boarding home in Hallowell, so that she could be near relatives.

Mrs. Bowie was a 1943 graduate of Lisbon High School, and graduated in 1946 from the Central Maine General Hospital (now Central Maine Medical Center) School of Nursing.

Also in 1946, she married Milton S. Bowie of Lisbon. Mr. Bowie predeceased her in 1991.

After graduation from nursing school, she joined the Central Maine General Hospital’s staff and practiced in a variety of areas, including surgical and emergency room nursing. She occasionally practiced private duty nursing, but eventually became a staff supervisor at Central Maine. She worked for several years in the office of Dr. Robert Frost of Auburn.

Prior to retirement, Mrs. Bowie suffered a number of health setbacks, including blindness. Nonetheless, for almost a decade after her husband’s death in 1991, until she moved to Hallowell, she lived alone and self-sufficiently in her Lisbon home.

She is survived by two sons, Alan of Uncassville, Conn., and James of Hallowell; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Bowie had two brothers who predeceased her.