Obituary of Amy Helene Schaum Owen

Amy Owen loved dogs. While dogs were among her fastest friends, she loved her kids, as well. Marnie, Rick, and Don said goodbye to their mom on Saturday, May 27th, 2023, one day before what would have been the 70th anniversary of her marriage to Dick Owen, whom she lost in December of 2011.

Amy was born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 30th, 1930, but spent the first twelve years of her life in Cuba, a country her parents loved and called home. She and her sister, Pauline, lived with an aunt and uncle in Ohio before she attended George Washington University where she met and fell in love with Dick. After graduation, she taught elementary school until Dick and Amy moved to Minnesota, where their three kids were born. They were lucky to grow up on the banks of Minnehaha Creek, home to Amy’s beloved garden, where the rocks she collected from far and wide came to rest. Summers were spent camping by and canoeing on Whitefish Lake in Wisconsin, a place to which she continued to return throughout her life.

She began work at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Andersen Horticultural Library, first as a volunteer and then as a research assistant, a fulfilling job that opened up new friendships and possibilities.

Amy’s life was filled with adventures, from family travels hiking in the Rockies to canoeing and kayaking trips with Wilderness Inquiry across the country and beyond.

A tomboy who aspired to be a cowgirl, she thrived outdoors, and fought fiercely for the natural spaces she loved.

She leaves behind multiple legacies but her love for her family was at the forefront, encompassing cousins and friends along with her furry companions. She was preceded in death by her parents, her

husband, and her sister. Her three children, Marnie, Rick, and Don, their spouses, partners, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren carry on her legacy.

She lives on in her loved ones, even as she is relieved from the pain she’d lived with for so long.

To celebrate her love of nature and love of learning, gifts may be made to the Andersen Horticultural Library of the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, online at https://84402.blackbaudhosting.com/84402/Andersen-Horticultural-Library or by mail to the library at 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska, MN, 55318.