Posted: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:48 AM - 8,031 Readers

By: Denise Gamino

More than 250 state employees are banding together to help 79-year-old Verta Mae Cowan, who made a spare living for decades by selling homemade crafts until health problems interfered.

Austin workers in the regulatory services division of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services are collecting money and volunteering to provide manual labor to renovate Cowan's dilapidated mobile home in a modest neighborhood near Lake Travis.

"Ms. Cowan is one of our valued, aging Texans," said Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman for the agency. "We do serve people in that age group, and that's what drew the regulatory staff members to her. It's really something they've taken to heart. This is the right thing for them to do."

The division adopted a Season for Caring family last year as well.

Hill Country ramblers probably have seen Cowan selling sock monkeys and other homemade country crafts out of her pickup at a highway intersection outside Kingsland. She's an experienced woodcrafter — think whirligigs and painted plywood yard decorations — and she crochets and sews everything from dolls to gag gifts. Whether it was 100 degrees or 32 degrees, Cowan was there.

But an old leg injury has sidelined her. She broke her leg 19 years ago and a rod was implanted. That rod has slipped out of place and is pressing against her ankle bone, leaving her in excruciating pain. She needs surgery but cannot find a doctor who will operate for what Medicare pays. Her monthly public assistance checks of less than $700 don't cover all her bills.

This year she is part of the Austin American-Statesman's Season for Caring campaign, which helps 12 families and more like them being served by a dozen Central Texas nonprofit agencies.

Cowan, who was widowed in 1957, lives in a mobile home on a lot she owns in the Apache Shores neighborhood near Lakeway. Her home needs extensive repairs, including a new floor, electrical wiring, plumbing and an electric stove.

She grew up in the same rural area of Tennessee as Dolly Parton and had to drop out of school after the fourth grade and take a canning factory job to help feed the family. She was the eldest of 11 children.

Today she delights in making and selling crafts and believes she could once again support herself if her leg could be fixed. "I've had a hard old life," she says. "I guess I'll rest when I die."

For more information on Verta Mae Cowan, contact Lake Travis Crisis Ministries, 266-9810. For more information on Season for Caring, call 445-3903 or e-mail seasonforcaring @statesman.com. To make a donation, use the coupon at right or go to statesman.com/seasonforcaring.

photography by Kelly West

*  Story Contributed by: Denise Gamino