Nestled near the center of Tennessee, the small town of Nolensville is related to two of the Volunteer State’s biggest mysteries.

In 1924, a fifteen-year-old black named Samuel Smith was arrested for shooting and wounding a white grocer in Nolensville. Samuel himself was also wounded in the shooting. While he was being transported to the hospital in Nashville for treatment, he was kidnapped by a white mob and dragged back to Nolensville where he was hanged to a tree and shot multiple times. No one was ever convicted of his murder.

The year after Nolensville’s infamous lynching, George Owens married his high-school sweetheart Alene. For the next six decades, the couple were fixtures in Nolensville where George, a retired custodian for the Nashville Products (disinfectant) Company, served as the Associate Pastor of the town’s New Hope Baptist Church.

By 1985, the Owens’ were enjoying their golden years and had recently celebrated their diamond (sixtieth) wedding anniversary. They had spent most of their lives with each other and, when their time on Earth was done, they planned to rest beside each other. That, however, has not been possible.

Seventy-nine-year-old George Owens vanished on July 22, 1985. What became of Nolensville’s beloved pastor is still unknown.

George Owens

Having traveled by bus to visit her niece in Ohio, Alene phoned George at approximately 3:00 p.m. on July 21. Arrangements were made for him to pick her up at the bus station in Nashville, twenty-three miles north of Nolensville, the following day. George seemed in good spirits and friends who live near the Owens’s saw him driving around town later that afternoon.

The bus carrying Aileen arrived at 6:00 a.m. as scheduled on July 22, but George did not. Alene was not initially worried, believing he had overslept.

Alene Owens

George’s Wife

After an hour of waiting, Alene called George’s brother, Alfred, to pick her up. Before he left, Alfred called George at his home but received no answer.

Alfred Owens

George’s Brother

When Alene and Alfred arrived at her home in Nolensville, they found George’s car was not in the garage. It appeared he had not been home for several hours as the couple’s dog was agitated and appeared hungry.

Dining ware for two people sat neatly on the kitchen table. The only items determined missing from the home were clothing and apparel frequently worn by George: an old black suit, a gold watch, and a ruby ring. Oddly, though, the black hat Alene had given her husband for his birthday the previous month was hanging from the rack. George had proudly been wearing it whenever he left home.

A police investigation turned up no sign of George for six days.

On July 28, George’s 1972 Dodge Dart was discovered abandoned on a remote rural hilltop overlooking the Tennessee River in Perry County. Nothing at the scene indicated a struggle or suggested foul play.

The keys were still in the ignition, but the battery was dead. The driver’s side back door was open and the driver’s side car seat was pushed farther back than would have been comfortable for the nearly six-foot-tall George.

George’s walking cane was propped against the car, surrounded by tree branches and piles of wood, suggesting someone was trying to hide it or burn it. Another pile of kindling wood lay inside the car, along with his jacket and a pack of matches found on the dashboard.

An area resident had seen George’s car go up the hill followed by a pickup. Approximately fifteen-to-twenty minutes later, she saw the pickup coming down the same gravel road, which was the only way in and out of the area. Police were unable to locate the vehicle.

 

George’s Car Is Found

Alene said George liked to pick up wood around his house, but he also kept his car meticulously clean. She did not believe he would have willingly driven it into the area because of the gravel road and, more assuredly, he would not have put the wood in his car.

Alene Is Confused By The Findings

A local television station aired a segment on George’s disappearance the following day, July 29. Afterwards, several people in west Tennessee reported having seen him.

Between 9:00-10:00 a.m. on July 22, three-to-four-hours after George was to pick up Alene in Nashville, he was seen at Potts Garage along Route 13 in Santa Fe, forty-five miles to the southwest and twelve miles from where his abandoned car was found six days later. Owner Larry Potts remembered George paid him $60 in cash for replacing a flat tire and asking for directions to Lobelville, ninety miles west of Nolensville.

George’s family believes Larry misunderstood George and that he instead asked him how to get to his home of “Nolensville,” forty miles northeast of Sante Fe and in the opposite direction of “Lobelville.” Without family or acquaintances in the Lobelville area, George had no reason to go there.

George Was Off Track

The following day, July 23, cashier Mary Jo Phebus believes she saw George in a convenience store in downtown Lobelville. She recalled him purchasing ice cream then leaving the store. A few minutes later, the man returned and purchased a pack of cigars, determined to be the kind George generally smoked, leading police to believe it was the missing pastor who was in the store.

After purchasing the cigars, George spoke for several minutes, half talking to Mary Jo and half talking to himself. Most of what he said was incoherent, but she was able to make out that he said he was sad because he could not find his wife.

Mary Jo said the man she believed to be George appeared to be disoriented. He left after approximately ten minutes and did not return.

Mary Jo Phebus

Store Clerk

George’s car was discovered abandoned five days later. With no suggestion of foul play, his strange actions led police to theorize he may have suffered a minor stroke and become disoriented. In his incapacitated state, he may have driven up the logging trail, and then wandered into the woods where he perished.

George, however, had trouble walking long distances without his cane, which was found perched against his car. Furthermore, a search of the woods found no trace of him and search dogs did not pick up his scent.

Did George Suffer A Medical Malady?

Alene Owens died in 1989 without knowing the fate of her husband of over sixty years. George was declared legally dead in 1993, eight years after he vanished. Law enforcement continues to investigate his disappearance.

Together In Life

Separated In Death

George Owens was last seen on July 22, 1985. At the time of his disappearance, he was seventy-nine-years-old, five-feet-eleven-inches tall, and weighed one-hundred-sixty pounds. He had white hair, brown eyes, and wore glasses. He needed a cane to walk any extended distance.

If you have any information relating to the disappearance of George Owens, please contact the Perry County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Department at 931-589-8803.

George Is Gone 

But The Search Goes On

SOURCES:

• The Charley Project
• The Doe Network
• The Tennessean
• Unsolved Mysteries