Gene Owen; Family Theater Co-Founder, Teacher

Gene N. Owen, who with her late husband Harold Owen founded the popular Family Theater to introduce classics and original plays to children, has died. She was 86.

Owen died Monday at the West Los Angeles board-and-care home where she lived, her daughter, Barrett Moore, said Wednesday.

The Owens operated the theater from 1953 until 1968 at Santa Monica College, where she taught drama for nearly four decades and headed the drama department. Her husband, former head of the speech department at Los Angeles City College, died in 1987.

The couple wrote eight plays for their theater and adapted three others, including many musicals. After each show the children and their parents were invited to an autograph party with the cast, drawn primarily from Gene Owen’s drama students.

Children were also asked to critique the performances in the novel effort to instill a love of theater in youngsters.

Among Owen’s students over the years was actor James Dean. She later wrote articles on his career and acting ability.

Owen is survived by her daughter and two grandsons.

Services are scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday in Manchester Chapel of the Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary.

Her daughter has asked that any memorial donations be given to the Gene N. Owen Scholarship Fund at Santa Monica College.