Ellen Pauline Rawlings Cowell was born on October 12, 1915 to John Paul and Carrie A. (Johnson) Rawlings of Meade, Kansas. The family moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where Ellen was raised and received her education in the public school system. She graduated in 1933 from Hutchinson High School and continued her education at the University of Kansas. She graduated from the University in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Minor in Psychology. She married Frank Andrew Cowell Junior on July 2, 1938 in Hutchinson, Kansas. The couple moved to Manhattan, Kansas for a short time. Frank found employment with Phillips Petroleum Company in 1939 and the couple moved to Pontiac, Michigan and later Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Ellen started the first Washington County, Oklahoma, classes for mentally handicapped children in the basement of Garfield Elementary School. She retired in 1980 and continued to live in Bartlesville. Ellen passed away on June 16, 2000 at the age of 84.