Former Grosse Pointe Park resident Nancy Trowern, 84, died peacefully Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, under hospice care at her home in Silver Spring, Md. She was surrounded by her husband, Howard “Joe” Trowern, their four children and her longtime caretaker, Rosario Martinez.

She was born Aug. 6, 1930, in Yonkers, N.Y., to Lt. Gen. and Mrs. Karl S. Day. She lived in Coronado, Calif., before moving to East Williston, N.Y., when she was 8. She attended the Northampton School for Girls in Massachusetts and Goucher College in Baltimore.

When she returned to East Williston, she met a 20-year-old backyard neighbor who had just returned from the war in Europe. In exchange for a ride to the beach, she offered to help him wash his car. That was the last car Joe Trowern ever washed. The couple married June 23, 1951.

Mrs. Trowern, her husband and four children moved to Grosse Pointe in 1973, where she remained until moving to the Washington, D.C. area in 2007. She was an active member of the Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, Grosse Pointe War Memorial, Grosse Pointe Sail Club and Grosse Pointe Newcomers Association. In addition, she was an active volunteer with Mariners Church in Detroit and helped to tutor newly arrived immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. She was an avid sailor and hosted countless happy hours at her home on Berkshire Road and on her boat at Windmill Pointe Park.

Her family said Mrs. Trowern was known for a generous spirit and sharp sense of humor. Her husband frequently could be heard claiming, “I married the prettiest girl in town” to which she replied, “It was a very small town!” In her last years Mrs. Trowern was afflicted with advanced dementia, but never lost her ability to laugh and to smile.

Mrs. Trowern is survived by her husband of 63 years, Howard Trowern; children, Michael Trowern, Cynthia Smith (Dan), Peter Trowern (Colleen) and Steven Trowern (Marcella); seven grandchildren and three nephews. She was predeceased by her brother, John Day.