James Owings Sr.

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At 100, retired periodontist still enjoys an active lifestyle.

James Rembert "Knotty" Owings has a home remedy for insomnia. It's inexpensive and requires no medications.

"When I can't sleep, I know I need more exercise. So I just get up and walk around the house," says Owings. "That way I can burn some energy; I'd rather do that than toss and turn."

The late-night treks, usually 15-30 minutes, are in addition to a daily routine, which includes a one-mile walk in the morning and another in the evening. And they've been part of Owings' health recipe for most of his adult life.

"I've been getting up late at night and walking for a long time," says the retired periodontist/farmer.

That covers a lot of footsteps. Born in July of 1907, when the United States wasn't much more than a century old, Owings celebrated his 100th birthday Sunday.

Twenty years since retiring from his periodontal practice, Owings continues to seek work for his sharp mind. Once an enthusiastic vegetable gardener who often planted three crops a year, that hobby kept him busy until age 98, when he retired from the farm and moved into an apartment that is attached to the Greenville home of his daughter.

That has made life more comfortable but less busy for Owings, who is adjusting to the change. With the exception of sporting events, he refuses to watch television -- which leaves plenty of time for reading and walking.

Last week, he was walking around the block at mid-day, several hours later than usual.

"I've always walked a good bit. When I was working, I'd walk around the farm, checking or building fences," says Owings, who believes regular exercise and a vegetable-strong diet are two of the reasons he's been able to maintain good health and an independent lifestyle.

His only brush with a medical threat came in 1980, when he underwent bypass surgery to correct heart problems. At that point, Owings eliminated chocolate, cheese, bacon and sweets from his diet.

"I eat most everything else," says Owings, who has remained a trim 125 pounds since the surgery. "I try not to eat a lot of fatty stuff . . . I try not to overindulge in anything. And I never use tobacco."

For most of his third and most notable career, Owings' focus was the health of others. As a student and physician of gum disease, he found satisfaction that was lacking in his first two careers -- retail management and teaching.

Owings stepped into a retail career shortly after his graduation from Wofford College in 1929. By 1930, he was manager of an S.H. Kresge (the forerunner of K-Mart) store while serving as a corporal in the U.S. Army Reserves.

In the era of the Great Depression, jobs were hard to find; this one paid $80 a month but created a problem when he was required to attend two weeks of summer camp with the Army Reserves. When the Kresge executives would allow him only one paid week of vacation, Owings made a career change -- taking a job as a teacher in Union County.

Two years later, he found his true calling: Owings enrolled in dental school. In 1936, he returned to Greenville -- where he had begun his education as a first-grade student at Pinckney School in 1913 -- to begin the practice of dentistry.

When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Owings was called into active duty, and spent the next 41/2 years in the military. The pay wasn't good and the working hours were tedious, but the experience gave Owings a clarified vision for his career.

Owings was one of the first dentists assigned a clinic at what is now the Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, and the exposure to severe periodontal disease was an education in itself.

"I saw people who had never had any dental work done. I saw a lot of gum diseases. That's when I wanted to specialize in periodontal work," says Owings.

At the time, it was a field in infancy. Most dental schools didn't teach it to any extent, and most areas of the South -- including Greenville -- didn't have a single periodontist in town.

Owings suddenly had a passion for providing a service that was badly needed. He studied at the University of North Carolina, the nearest college offering specialized classes at the time, and spent a few weeks with a periodontist in Montgomery, Ala. He returned to Greenville and opened a practice as one of the first periodontists in the Upstate.

"I've always tried to encourage people to keep all their teeth, to try and save the teeth and the structure around them, and keep the bone structure healthy," says Owings.

That philosophy, though common today, was not as prevalent a half-century ago. "There was a time when a lot of people opted to get their teeth pulled and buy false teeth," says Owings.

His devotion to the tooth-preserving philosophy made Owings a fixture on several professional organizations that provided continuing education. He was a pioneer in the formation of the South Carolina Dental Society, serving as its president in 1960 and as an officer for more than a dozen years. He also served in the Southern Academy of Periodontia and the American Academy of Periodontia, along with the American Dental Association.

Owings' son, J.R. Jr., better known as "Rip," followed his footsteps. He continues to practice dentistry on Mills Avenue, where the father and son practiced together in the 1980s.

Owings was married for 67 years to the late Lillian Pruitt, a native of Honea Path who was a teacher at Fountain Inn when the couple began dating in 1931. Their six-year courtship was a sign of the Depression-era times, when couples had to save money diligently before taking on family responsibilities.

"We wrote letters to each other every day when the postage was two cents," Owings recalls. "When it went up to three cents, we had to cut back."

The couple had three children, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

"That's the great thing about longevity -- to see your children grow, and their children grow, and their children grow," says Owings, whose father Wayne was a Methodist minister and an 1898 Wofford graduate.

Both Owings' grandfathers served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. One grandfather, Francis Rapley Owings, was the founder of the Owings community and his gift of land to the railroad resulted in Owings Station.

Owings, who can remember riding to Greenville with his grandfather on a horse-driven carriage, was one of the charter members of Trinity Methodist Church in 1948. He had attended Buncombe Street Methodist as a child, and later Hampton Methodist and Triune Methodist.

Several friends and family joined him in Sunday's celebration, but Owings says age 100 doesn't feel any differently than 99 -- or any other age, for that matter.

"I don't feel any different. I didn't dream I'd ever live to be 100. The good Lord has been good to me," says Owings. "Now I just try to be as good a Christian as I can be."

Published: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 By Abe Hardesty

CITY PEOPLE WRITER

ahardest@greenvillenews.com