Housing Hall of Fame Inductee J. Bentley Owens, Jr., Dies at 77
James Bentley Owens, Jr., a second-generation Alabama builder who helped found the National Housing Endowment (NHE) and was inducted into NAHB’s National Housing Hall of Fame, died on Saturday, Feb. 12, at the age of 77.
Owens, a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Commerce and School of Law, was president of his company, J. B. Owens Realty Company, based in Birmingham. He served as president of the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders and of the Home Builders Association of Alabama and as an NAHB Life Director.
In addition to NAHB’s Housing Hall of Fame, Owens was inducted into the hall of fame of the Birmingham AHB and the hall of fame of the state association.
At NHE, he was instrumental in helping to establish the Richard Sexton/NHE Scholarship Fund, the endowment’s first scholarship fund.
Owens was a longtime member of Mountain Brook Baptist Church, was president of the Mountain Brook Lions Club, chairman of the Republican Party of Jefferson County and a member of the Quarterback Club.
He was preceded in death by his son, Harris Fouché Owens, and is survived by his wife of 53 years, Kathleen Fouché Owens; daughter, Anne Roys Owens Kendrick; son, James Bentley Owens III; daughter, Leslie Ross Owens Mapes; daughter-in-law Mikran Denton Owens; 11 grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Anne Fouché Southard of Huntsville, Ala.; and several nieces and nephews.