Cynthia was born in Rushville, Nebraska, the youngest of three daughters born to Bernard Archie and Eunice Louise Yost Owen. As a very young child, the sight and sound of the high school marching band inspired her as it practiced near her home. She was fascinated with the flute and prior to getting one would play her recorder, holding it in a transverse position.

Because a flute wasn't available, she was started on a clarinet in the beginning band at the public school. She became increasingly upset over having to play an instrument she did not like and was finally allowed to switch to flute. Within a few weeks she had made enough progress to be first chair flute.

Owen's musical training prior to arriving at Union College in 1973, where she enrolled as a music education major, was limited, yet she was an apt student who, being aware of her needs, worked to remedy her weaknesses. By the time of her graduation in 1978, she was principal flutist in the concert bands.

She started her teaching career at Sunnydale Academy in Missouri, where she was hired on a part-time basis to direct the band and teach lessons. When her husband, Douglas Stokes, enter Loma Linda University to study medicine a year later, she was hired by Redlands Junior Academy, now Redlands Academy. After four years there, she taught contract lessons for Phillip Binkley in his band program at Loma Linda Academy for the next five years, teaching over fifty lessons a week.

When Douglas completed his study and residency, they moved to St Joseph, Missouri. While her children were infants, she started a band at the church school. In 2000, she started teaching part-time at the St. Joseph Christian School, a small nondenominational school with a high school enrollment of ninety, six of whom played instruments.

By the time she left five years later, there were bands at all levels, with fifty students in the high school band. Although nominated for teacher of the year, she could not be given the award because of her part-time status.

In 2005, the Stokeses moved to Roselle, Illinois, near Chicago. Two years later, Douglas, was diagnosed with melanoma in March and died the following August. Cynthia returned to Lincoln, Nebraska, in March 2007, where she enrolled as a graduate student in music education at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Interview, October 2008.