Kathleen Myrle Sowma passed away Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at Heaton Woods, Montpelier. The daughter of the Reverend Thomas H. and Edith (Britt) Cresey, Myrle (as she preferred to be known), was born on April 12, 1910 in Alburg, VT. Because her father was a Methodist minister and served many churches in Vermont, Myrle's elementary education took place in Milton, Cabot and Essex Junction. She was a 1928 graduate of Montpelier Seminary. Myrle established residence in Montpelier in 1929 where she was employed by the Montpelier and Waits River Railroad Company for six years. She was also employed by the Vermont Unemployment Office before she married Abraham Sowma on August 12, 1941. The Sowmas owned and operated the Brown Derby Restaurant, a very popular local business on Northfield Street in Montpelier for 33 years. Myrle retired in 1977. Myrle was pre-deceased by her husband, Abraham (Abe) Sowma in 1989, and two sisters, Lucy Mae (Bobbe) Funk at age 73, in 1973, and Elizabeth Cresey, at age 101, in 2001. In 1912, when Myrle was two years old, her family visited family and friends in England. After booking passage on the ill-fated Titanic, her family learned the ship would dock in New York and not Montreal, Canada, which was much closer to their home in Alburg. As a result, the family cancelled their passage on the ship that sunk in the north Atlantic on her maiden voyage. Myrle maintained her home at 3 Derby Drive in Montpelier for 27 years before moving to Heaton Woods in 2004. Myrle, who believed in keeping fit, often took walks through the Derby Drive, Meadow Lane, Mountain View neighborhood. Myrle is survived by her husband's nephew, Joseph Meelan of Utica, New York, and several friends and neighbors. There will be no calling hours. Burial will be held at a later date in Hope Cemetery in Barre, next to her husband, Abraham. Those wishing to send on-line condolences may do so at www.guareandsons.com and go to Myrle's obituary.