Memorial services will be today in Horseshoe Bay for Jerry Paul Owens, former president and chairman of Richardson-based Owens Country Sausage, who helped build the business into a regional food company.

Mr. Owens, son of the company's founder, died Feb. 20 in Horseshoe Bay, near Austin, shortly after surgery for stomach and esophageal cancer, his wife said. He was 74.

A former jet fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Owens returned to North Texas in 1958, taking the post of vice president at the business his father had begun 30 years earlier at the family's Owens Spring Creek Farm in Richardson.

Actually, Jerry Owens once said, he began working for the company at age 5, when he was responsible for cutting strips of cloth for sausage sacks. In 1973, he was named president, and later chairman and chairman emeritus.

In 1987, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bob Evans Farms of Columbus, Ohio, in a stock deal worth nearly $16 million.

As the company's pitchman, Mr. Owens became a familiar fixture on TV and radio. Within the company, he was known for his even temper and unassuming manner, family members said.

"He had one secretary for 30-something years," said his wife of 17 years, Suzanne Owens.

"Many [workers] had been there their entire working lives," she said, noting the family atmosphere of the business. "He was good to everyone."

Mrs. Owens said the couple moved to Horseshoe Bay around 2000; Mr. Owens became less active in the daily affairs of the company but remained available as a mentor and adviser.

Mr. Owens' son, Stewart, was named vice president of Owens Country Sausage in 1980 – the third generation of family members involved in running the company.

Stewart Owens was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 1984. He retired as chairman and chief executive of Bob Evans Farms, which by then had purchased Owens, in 2005.

Stewart Owens said his father was largely responsible for the sausage company's growth from a small local business into a regional player.

"The company went through its greatest growth under this stewardship in the '60s and '70s," said Stewart Owens. "He was instrumental in the transition."

Services for Mr. Owens will be at 10 a.m. today at The Church of Horseshoe Bay.

Note: Jerry Paul Owens, b November 20, 1933, d February 20, 2008, Marble Falls, Burnet County, Texas.