Bruce Allen Owen

Bruce Allen Owen, a talented singer, musician, intellectual and career industrial hygienist for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 34 years, died suddenly on Saturday of multiple complications at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn. He was 64. His death was announced by his wife, Darlene Owen. Though his work for one of the leading federal nuclear research facilities in the United States was rewarding, fulfilling and challenging, his true passions lay in the arts. Formally and informally trained on a number of instruments, his primary love and greatest skill was for the acoustic guitar. Whether writing and creating music from the enjoyment of his home studio with his wife, Darlene, or covering classic 60s and 70s songs live in front of an audience -- friends and newcomers often marveled at his smooth fret movement and appealing, James Taylor-esque voice. The musician-vocalist-instrumentalist world is presently, and will forever be, more vacant of true talent with his absence in the physical form, not to mention the lost conversationalist circles of the intellectual variety. Bruce was born on Aug. 5, 1952, in Balboa, Panama, to Joseph Harding Owen and Laura Florene Owen. Mr. Owen was a career serviceman in the U.S. Army. The family eventually settled in Knoxville, Tennessee. Bruce then graduated from Farragut High School, before receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee. He leaves behind wife Darlene, sons Justin and Brad, Brothers Jeff and Steve, stepson and daughter-in-law, Les and Stephanie, granddaughter Phoebe, and several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers contributions can be made to the ASPCA or The Foundation For Breast Cancer Research. A visitation will begin at 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. Sunday April 30, 2017 at The Life Event Center, 1404 Tuckaleechee Pike, Maryville, TN 37803. Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, 865-983-1000, www.SmithFuneralandCremation.com. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Bruce Allen Owen please visit our Sympathy Store.