M.L. Owens taught pottery to all eight of his children. Six became potters — carrying the family tradition from Seagrove to Jugtown, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and beyond.
Original Owens Pottery · Seagrove, NC
Daughter of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Original Owens Pottery, Seagrove, NC
Nancy Owens Brewer was born in 1953 and according to her brother Vernon, she had been turning pots since before 1960 — learning the wheel before most children learn to read. She assisted her father M.L. at the family pottery through the 1960s and early 1970s, then married Gary Brewer in 1975, the same year Boyd took over management of the shop. Nancy has remained the principal potter at Original Owens ever since.
Widely recognized as one of the most prolific potters in the Seagrove area, Nancy throws thousands of pieces a year by hand — mugs, plates, pitchers, piggy banks, and a beloved painted folk-art series spanning Noah's Ark, birds, bunnies, and tractor designs. She decorates with skilled brushwork, and her range spans the full Owens tradition: the signature red glaze, rich blues and greens, and painted series that carry a lightness and warmth all her own. She has raised her two children, Lori Ann and Gary Kyle, in the same pottery milieu.
The clay is only part of the story. When the NC Pottery Center opened its landmark 2009 exhibition "175 Years of Pottery by the Owen/Owens Families" — drawing 200 collectors, potters, and community members — the evening's music was provided by the family itself. Nancy played guitar while her sisters sang bluegrass music and hymns alongside the whole Glenn Bolick family: a moment that captured, better than any catalog entry could, just how fully the Owen/Owens family has always lived inside its traditions.
Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC · jugtownware.com
Son of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Jugtown Pottery, Westmoore, NC
Vernon Owens was born in 1941 and grew up working in his father's shop, absorbing shapes from M.L. and his uncle Walter Owen. In the late 1950s, at just fifteen, he went to work for C.C. Cole making as many as 200 small pieces a day. At eighteen, Vernon took on the daunting responsibility of becoming Jugtown's principal potter — stepping into the role once held by the legendary Ben Owen.
After Jugtown's owner John Maré died suddenly in 1962, Vernon and Bobby operated the pottery together. In 1968 the timely purchase of Jugtown by Country Roads, a non-profit, brought new leadership and helped Vernon transition to safer glaze formulas. He married Pam Lorette, a Jugtown apprentice, in 1983, and purchased the pottery outright. Their son Travis joined as a full-time potter in 2007, and daughter Bayle works there as well.
Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC · jugtownware.com
Wife of Vernon Owens · Jugtown Pottery, Westmoore, NC
Pamela Lorette was born in 1958 in New England, where she had already begun studying pottery at High Mowing School in New Hampshire. She apprenticed at several potteries before arriving at Jugtown in 1977, then returned in 1980 and never left. She married Vernon in 1983, and together they purchased Jugtown and have run it as a family business ever since.
Pam's artistry expresses itself in the innovative forms that grace Jugtown's shelves, and her deep research into Seagrove's history has led to the revival of a number of traditional forms that might otherwise have been lost. Her leadership in developing Jugtown's glaze formulas has helped keep the pottery at the forefront of critical acclaim. Her sister, jewelry artist Jennie Lorette Keatts, has a workshop at Jugtown and the two often collaborate on pieces that combine pottery and metalwork.
Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC · jugtownware.com
Son of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Jugtown Pottery, Westmoore, NC
Bobby Owens was born in 1939 and spent his childhood learning the family business alongside his brothers and sisters at M.L.'s pottery. In 1960, John Maré hired Bobby, Vernon, and Charles Moore to replace Ben Owen at Jugtown. Bobby and Charles left the turning to Vernon and took on the backbreaking necessities: digging and processing clay, loading and firing kilns, cutting wood, and maintaining Jugtown's numerous structures.
After Maré's death in 1962, Bobby and Vernon operated Jugtown together. For nearly fifty years, Bobby and his wife Emily have been an integral part of the Jugtown mystique — a steady, essential presence behind everything that happens at the wheel.
Bolick Pottery · Lenoir, NC
Daughter of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Bolick Pottery, Lenoir, NC
Lula Belle Owens was born in 1943 and joined the growing number of women potters on the wheel, changing a tradition that had long been dominated by men. She married Glenn Bolick in 1962 and they lived next door to her father. Glenn learned the family business from M.L., and when the couple established their own home between Lenoir and Blowing Rock, they opened Bolick Pottery — extending the geographic reach of Owens-influenced pottery into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Lula and Glenn hold well-attended kiln openings and annual festivals that include music, foodways and other traditional activities, and have been regulars at the Village of Yesteryear at the NC State Fair for nearly thirty years. She was the recipient of the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the NC Folklore Society, and both she and Glenn received the NC Heritage Award.
Bolick Pottery · Lenoir, NC
Husband of Lula Belle Owens · Bolick Pottery, Lenoir, NC
Glenn Bolick was born in 1939 in Watauga County — a talented musician and storyteller long before he ever touched clay. After marrying Lula Belle Owens in 1962 and moving in next door to her father M.L., he learned the pottery trade from the ground up. What he absorbed from M.L. became the foundation of Bolick Pottery, which he and Lula founded together when they settled near Lenoir.
Glenn is well known for his bean pots and pinch-handled platters. A fourth-generation sawmill man, he writes songs drawn from his life's experiences and plays old-time music on fiddle, banjo, and guitar — and the saw. He and Lula hold well-attended kiln openings and festivals that weave music, foodways, and pottery together in the same Appalachian tradition. Glenn received the 1998 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the NC Folklore Society.
Bolick Pottery · Lenoir, NC
Daughter of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Bolick Pottery, Lenoir, NC
Ina Owens Bolick was born in 1945 and was making pots at her father M.L.'s pottery by her early teens. Like all her brothers and sisters, she was well versed in the hard work required to keep a family pottery going. Through her sister Lula's relationship with Glenn Bolick, Ina met his brother Dell Vernon, and they married in 1962. Ina and Dell settled next door to Lula and Glenn near Lenoir.
Ina turns pots for Lula's pottery and is well known for the clay animals she makes — fired and sold at the shops of her brothers and sisters across North Carolina.
Jugtown Pottery · Westmoore, NC · In Memoriam
Daughter of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens · Potter & Decorator at Jugtown · Passed 1989
Viola Owens Brady — known to her family as "Pot" — was born in 1946 and made important contributions to the Owens pottery legacy. After her marriage to Allen Brady and the birth of her children in the early 1970s, Viola kept the books at Jugtown, tended the shop, and revealed a remarkable talent for pottery decoration. Working closely with director Nancy Sweezey, she developed the delicate design patterns of wheat stalks, birds, and dogwood blossoms that became hallmarks of Jugtown's dinnerware during that era. Along with her sisters, she also made chickens and pigs.
Viola passed away from cancer in 1989. In her memory, her daughter Lisa established "Pots for the Cure," a cancer research fundraiser held in 2008, supported by the whole family.
M.L.'s Daughter · Family
Daughter of M.L. & Pearl Marie Owens
Hilda Owens Peterson was born in 1940 and grew up doing chores around the pottery and learning the family business alongside her brothers and sisters. She left home and married at nineteen, building her own life while remaining close to the family. Though the wheel was not her calling, she has contributed animal figurines to her siblings' potteries over the years — including the sheep she made for "Pots for the Cure," the 2008 cancer fundraiser held in memory of her sister Viola.
Original Owens Pottery · Seagrove, NC · southernfolkpotterysociety.com
Great-Grandson of J.H. Owen · Cousin of the Owens Family
Billy Ray Hussey is the great-grandson of J.H. Owen, making him a cousin to Boyd, Vernon, Nancy, and the rest of M.L.'s children. He turned pots and worked at the Original Owens shop throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s — a fixture of the family operation during some of its most productive years.
Billy Ray became nationally recognized as a figural maker, creating his signature lions, face jugs, Medusa heads, devils, and other sculptural works right at the Owens shop. His pieces are highly collectible and appear in galleries across the Southeast. He and his wife Susan operate the Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society, which holds nationally attended auctions and openings dedicated to preserving the folk pottery tradition his great-grandfather helped establish.
