{"id":221150,"date":"2026-04-06T22:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:06:13","slug":"community-gathers-to-honor-vice-mayor-metayer-bowens-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221150\/","title":{"rendered":"Community gathers to honor Vice Mayor Metayer Bowen’s Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was set to announce a run for Congress this week; instead, the community gathered Friday to mourn her tragic death.<\/p>\n

Her husband, 40-year-old Stephen Bowen, whom she married in 2022, was subsequently charged with her murder after shooting and killing her in their home on Wednesday, according to previous reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to CBS12 News partners at the South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a>, the week was supposed to be a milestone for her career, as she had planned to announce a run for Congress.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of mourners attended a candlelight vigil at City Hall, gathering around photos that displayed her as most of her friends remembered her \u2014 smiling.<\/p>\n

\"Friends<\/p>\n

Friends and community members gather for a candlelight vigil at Coral Springs City Hall to honor the life of Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen on Friday, April 3, 2026. (Jim Rassol\/Contributor)<\/p>\n

See also: Jury awards Wellington man $67M after spinal injury at 2023 Mudfest event<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cShe just believed in people and wanted to make things easier, make life easier for people who were really struggling,” her friend Santra Denis told the Sun Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bowen is remembered as the first Black and Haitian-American woman to ever serve on the Coral Springs City Commission<\/a> and as a dedicated “environmental nerd” who championed underserved communities.<\/p>\n

The vigil was filled with orange and green, the colors of her alma mater, Florida A&M University.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy was an angel. Inside and out, beautiful. We miss her,” said Jay Jean-Louis if the Haitian American Democratic Club of Broward<\/a>. “The family has raised a beautiful girl with beautiful principles, with hard work, with discipline, with love She was the inspiration of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Representative Marie Woodson recalled their shared work ethic, stating, \u201cWe are Black, we are Haitian, we need to outwork everybody. And that\u2019s what Nancy did!\u201d U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz<\/a> asserted that \u201cNancy would have won\u201d her bid for Congress and vowed to honor her on the House floor.<\/p>\n

According to CBS12 news partners at the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the vigil ended with a plea to carry on her legacy, as young leaders like Christel Louidor shared how Metayer Bowen \u201ccalled purpose out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer Bowen was set to announce a run for Congress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-221150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}